Quick Thoughts about the VZW iPhone

So, almost everyone agrees that Verizon Wireless will likely pick up the iPhone tomorrow, which, if nothing else, will surely be a huge boon for Apple sales (and thus AAPL stock). But a number of questions remain: will the phone be merely CDMA/EV-DO (Verizon's 3G network) or have LTE too (Verizon's 4G network)? Will it be an iPhone 4 or something more? Will there be other announcements?

My take is this: Verizon's model will be essentially the same as the already available iPhone 4 so as not to disrupt Apple's normal, one year lifecycle for iPhones and iPods. Thus, I expect this is more of a stopgap release prior to the iPhone 5 being unveiling in early summer, presumably in flavors for both GSM/HSPA (AT&T) and CDMA/EV-DO (Verizon). A slight bump on something like the camera resolution wouldn't surprise me, but I would not bet on it, either.

Wild prediction: the Verizon iPhone will support an app that turns the phone into a wi-fi hotspot, similar to how current Android phones do. I suspect that omission in the present iPhone 4 has more to do with AT&T than any Apple internal resistance to that great idea.

CDMA seems more likely than LTE since Apple tends to play conservative on such network shifts — especially if battery life is a major problem — as was demonstrated by the 2G nature of the original iPhone, despite AT&T already having a significant 3G footprint. Nonetheless, leaked images with a SIM card slot make me think that Apple is going for a world phone that will also have GSM/HSPA capabilities. Perhaps the model unveiled tomorrow will replace the existing iPhone 4 with a single model able to be on both AT&T and Verizon?

As to other product announcements: while I think this event is a necessary precursor to an iPad 2 event (assuming the iPad 3G gets Verizon compatibility), I agree with those who note that Apple would not do a major new product launch at an event hosted by the carrier and not the Cupertino company itself.