While I would love to see an iPhone running on VZW, I don't hold any strong expectation of seeing it any time soon. VZW is close to rolling out LTE, but far enough away that any putative iPhone would have need a CDMA radio to function outside the few early rollout markets. If Apple were to wait a year or two, LTE would be far enough along that there would be no need for a separate submodel for VZW and the other current CDMA carriers.

Could these rumors be Apple's way of wringing out greater concessions from AT&T in exchange for extending the contract's exclusivity?