Edible Apple

Take this with a huge grain of salt, but MacDailyNews is reporting that the iPhone is not only coming to Verizon shortly after Christmas, but that the device will be LTE capable as well. Previous rumors have all hinted that Verizon will receive the iPhone 4 sometime in early 2011.

But back to the rumor. The story goes that an official announcement will be made right after Christmas as to ensure that AT&T can enjoy the strong holiday shopping season. Immediately following the announcement, the LTE iPhone will be available in Apple Stores and in non-franchise Verizon outlets.

Now seeing as how LTE is anything but widespread at this point, the report notes that the Verizon iPhone will have a multi-band chip with CDMA backwards compatibility. Moreover, this mythical LTE iPhone will be a Verizon exclusive.

Some other questionable tidbits include:

• Device has been “100% cooked for quite a while” and already shipping in bulk to Verizon warehouses
• Verizon agreed to take 100% responsibility for security, so all the devices will be in their hands until the official announcement date, and they will then distribute thru channels in massive manner (hence early stockpiling)
• iPhone 5 was planned to debut in summer as LTE-only, for all contracted carriers, but the clock is ticking and nobody thinks either Verizon or AT&T can get to critical mass to offer an LTE-only version
• Steve Jobs is said to be upset that carriers cannot seem to get their LTE act together more quickly
• Apple is “helping” U.S. carriers (money?) to build out LTE more quickly

Are we buyin it? We’d like to, but this sounds a bit too fishy.