Edible Apple

Well the cat’s out of the bag. Hot on the heels of a report that Apple has prohibited retail employees from taking vacation time in February comes some sleuthing from BGR suggesting the iPhone on Verizon will launch on Feb. 3.

BGR has confirmed with a source close to Apple that the company has blacked out employee vacation requests between February 3rd and February 6th — Thursday through Sunday. The four-day vacation freeze has been confirmed to be in effect in several regions in the United States. A recent report suggested the vacation black-out would cover a period of three weeks beginning in late January and extending into February, which still could be true in some regions.

Back in June of last year, Apple picked the dates of 24th to the 27th for its iPhone 4 weekend launch — also a Thursday through Sunday. In addition, Verizon Wireless typically launches new devices on Thursdays. While BGR has not yet confirmed that the Verizon iPhone is the device we’ll see debut on the 3rd, the timing lines up very well with previous reports; no other Apple products have been rumored to be launching in this time frame.