Verizon iPhone To Debut on Jan 11th?

Many experts believed 2011 to finally be the year Apple iPhone would land on Verizon. According to rumors, that could happen as early as tomorrow. Verizon is planning to hold a special event to announce a new product/service on January 11th, 2011. Considering that Apple’s exclusive agreement with AT&T is done and with all the discussions that has gone on between Verizon and Apple, these rumors are more than likely true.

PC Mag reports that not only we will see a new iPhone soon, it will also come with its own unlimited plan. The unlimited data plans started disappearing a short while ago. Apparently, Verizon is ready to sweeten its iPhone deal to get as many people as possible to sign up for CDMA iPhone. As CNET reported, millions of people could potentially jump ships from AT&T to Verizon. An unlimited data plan for CDMA could only help:

The estimates range from 1 million to 6 million moving from AT&T to Verizon, though the bulk of sales of a potential Verizon iPhone would still come from current Verizon customers updating their existing phones.

Verizon iPhone is not good news for Apple competitors. New devices by Apple’s major rivals have gotten little attention while the media speculates about what CDMA Verizon will mean for the industry. Devices such as Droid will finally go head to head with iPhone on the same network, but it is difficult to see how any one of them could topple the iPhone:

It’s going to be the dominant device at Verizon as soon as it’s launched, and, I think, cannibalize the other devices they sell,

UBS AG analyst John Hodulik said. For its part, AT&T is already attacking Verizon iPhone:

The iPhone is built for speed, but that’s not what you get with a CDMA phone. I’m not sure iPhone users are ready for life in the slow lane.

Can Verizon’s network handle all the load iPhone users will put on it? We will have to wait and see.