Verizon iPhone, Facebook Phone Coming Soon

The world of smart-phone is about to dramatically change yet again with Apple putting the final pieces of the puzzle together to get Verizon iPhone to the market. Unlike the White iPhone, Verizon iPhone will be making its debut sooner rather than later. According to Fortune, Verizon iPhone will be released in early 2011:

Fortune has confirmed that a Verizon iPhone will be released in early 2011 …. Verizon, sources say, will sell its own version of the iPhone 4, which will work on Verizon’s CDMA-based 3G network. Unfortunately for globetrotters, the first version of the phone likely won’t be built to work outside the U.S.—it probably won’t carry a special chip that can turn it into a ‘world phone.’

Apple iPhone could face a challenge from Facebook phone. Facebook has denied it’s been working on a phone for the past few weeks. The company has invited the media for a “mobile event” that will be held on the upcoming Wednesday. While this could be just about a software update, many experts believe Facebook will disclose some information about is secret phone. It is not clear what Facebook could offer on that phone to topple Apple iPhone, but the device could get some traction with the right features.

In the meantime, Apple intends to put Motorola in its place. It has countersued Motorola over 6 multi-touch and UI patents related to iPhone. The target of this lawsuit? Motorola Droid 2 and Droid X. Here are the 6 new patents named in this lawsuit:

• U.S. Patent No. 7,812,828 – “Elipse fitting for multi-touch surfaces”
• U.S. Patent No. 7,663,607 – “Multipoint touchscreen”
• U.S. Patent No. 5,379,430 – “Object-oriented system locator system”
• U.S. Patent No. 7,479,949 – “Touch screen device, method, and graphical user interface for determining commands by applying heuristics”
• U.S. Patent No. 6,493,002 – “Method and apparatus for displaying and accessing control and status information in a computer system”
• U.S. Patent No. 5,838,315 – “Support for custom user-interaction elements in a graphical, event-driven computer system”

So Apple sues HTC, Motorola sues Apple, and Apple fires back. At this point, it seems all these companies are playing a chess game with their lawsuits. Don’t expect any of their phones to disappear due to these lawsuits though.