If it is Wednesday, there must be another unsourced, unconfirmed, traffic-baiting story out about how the Apple iPhone is coming to Verizon Wireless. Today the originator of this almost archetypal tech myth is no less an institution than The Wall Street Journal. Is it any wonder the American public see the Verizon iPhone as inevitable? People, we have been through this before. Please don't believe everything you read on the Internet.
What does spreading unconfirmed and misleading rumors get you? If you are a reporter, it gets you a lot of traffic and your story at the top of Google News and Techmeme. If you are Verizon, it can drive up your stock price and possibly influence your negotiations with hardware vendors. Analysts get to pad their portfolios of portentous clips to parade before potential clients. Bloggers get something to chew on and spit back out in masticated pieces. What do readers get? Confusion, misinformation, and fluff.
It doesn't help that underneath all the blog buzz and rehashed write-throughs, the Journal story that spawned this latest tempest is thinner than grapheme. The lead reads simply:
Apple Inc. plans to begin mass producing a new iPhone by the end of 2010 that would allow Verizon Wireless to sell the smartphone early next year, said people briefed by Apple.
Read carefully and you'll see that the only thing that is confirmed, albeit anonymously, is that Apple will be building a CDMA phone that will "allow" Verizon to sell an iPhone that works on its network. Thing is, this could also "allow"' Sprint to sell an iPhone. That may not be true, but at least it is original.
Anonymous sources are essential to journalism, but good editors know when and how to use them. Perhaps someone at the Journal checked these sources and will be validated when the Verizon iPhone is announced on the opening day of CES But I really doubt it. This particular story happens every three months, and it is always wrong. Verizon iPhone rumors date back to 9to5mac.com promising a Verizon iPhone in early 2009!
Is iPhone coming to Verizon soon? No. It will be June 2011, at the earliest when Verizon's LTE rollout starts in earnest. That is when the the Verizon iPhone could be a reality. And that will continue to be my answer until I can confirm the fact with a source willing to be named on the record. That means I probably won't break the news. It also means the moment the Verizon iPhone is announced I will be proved wrong.
But every day until then, I'll be right. And that is more than The Wall Street Journal, 9to5Mac.com, or any other Internet gossip monger can say.