Finally: Verizon iPhone announcement Tuesday

"Latest news from Verizon Wireless" better be an iPhone, or we're going to be severely disappointed

Verizon Wireless will have to deal with a very angry world wide Web foaming at the mouth come next Tuesday if they don't end up announcing the first CDMA iPhone.

The wireless provider sent out invitations Friday afternoon (pictured left), setting everyone's brains on fire with fantasies of the launch of Apple's iPhone on, for the very first time, a network that's not AT&T. Actually, they might not just be fantasies; sources say the iPhone Verizon deal is assured.

In case you're wondering how an old smartphone launching on a new provider can cause such an epic frenzy, here's the short list of good things that will come out of an iPhone on Verizon:

Why the Verizon iPhone is good for Verizon and Apple: Okay, this might be the no-brainer, but maybe it's worth emphasizing anyway. The last time the company reported sales for its financial quarter, October 18, 2010, Apple said that it had shipped 14.1 million iPhones, up 91 percent year-over-year. For its next quarter, Apple plans to ship 5-6 million Verizon iPhones alone, which would represent a mix of both current Verizon subscribers updating their devices as well as new Verizon subscribers. It makes me almost want to argue that a rise in Verizon's market share is all but guaranteed.

Why the Verizon iPhone is good for consumers: Whether you're an AT&T iPhone user waiting to jump to a potentially superior service provider or a Verizon subscriber thirsting for the iPhone, the new deal between Verizon and Apple is the best thing you could have imagined. But Apple's expansion to Verizon is great for everybody, iPhone customers or not, because the deal will at the very least reignite healthy competition between two of the biggest wireless providers in the U.S. One gets the feeling that AT&T was enjoying its iPhone exclusivity a little bit too much. More options for consumers and more competition between businesses always leads to good things for consumers.

Why the Verizon iPhone could be good for Android: In general, more competition on Verizon won't really give Android any immediately tangible advantage. The smartphone OS has been growing heavily over the past year, managing to surpass the iPhone in sales by decentralizing to many different devices, but that growth will be slowed by a Verizon iPhone. That decentralization, however, is a product of openness, openness which has opened the doors to carriers like Verizon to pre-install unwanted apps and other junk on otherwise amazing devices. And yet, you can be sure that no such thing will happen to an iPhone on Verizon. Apple is famously obsessed with controlling its product experience. If this is the case, then manufacturers of Android devices could possibly have more of a leg to stand on when seeking to refuse Verizon's proprietary software. 

Why the Verizon iPhone is good for AT&T: It's not. Maybe the droves of clients bailing for Verizon will lessen the load on AT&T's network a little, though. That's a benefit, right?