It isn’t new news that Verizon has been in talks with Apple about releasing an iPhone, but now the Wall Street Journal says this is actually going to happen, and soon. As far as details go, there really wasn’t much stated besides an early 2011 release. The release of an iPhone early in the year does sound kind of strange as far as Apple goes, considering they’ve had a consistent pattern of releasing iPhones mid year, but you never know. Verizon claims they will roll out LTE to 38 cities by the end of 2010 so this may be part of the plan. Apple may have had an issue releasing a CDMA-only iPhone considering it’s not possible to talk and surf on a CDMA network but AT&T’s exclusivity contract is supposedly coming to an end, so in this case timing may be everything. It’s also possible that the contract is just simply ending and LTE has nothing to do with it. There’s no telling how close the size and form-factor of the Verizon iPhone would be to the current iPhone 4, if it would release to the entire US in one shot, what the specs would be or what it would be called. There’s also no telling what type of control Verizon would have with the branding of its first iPhone. We’re all going to have to sit tight and see just how this rumor unfolds.