Apple Prepping Verizon-Ready CDMA iPhone for 2011 Launch [UPDATED]

Apple (AAPL) is reportedly building a CDMA version of its iPhone that may be headed to Verizon. “People briefed by Apple” tell The Wall Street Journal that the company plans to begin mass producing the device later this year with an eye toward a first quarter 2011 launch. Note that the Journal’s report says only that a CDMA iPhone is in the works, not that it’s destined for Verizon (VZ).

An interesting bit of news, particularly given recent remarks from Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg that seemed to suggest the iPhone wasn’t headed to the carrier’s network in the near future. “We would love to carry [the iPhone], but we have to earn it,” he said earlier this month. “I can’t speak for Apple.”

Misdirection. Honesty? Perhaps the next Verizon iPhone rumor (sigh) will shed a bit more light….

UPDATE: The Journal has updated its story to say, explicitly, that Verizon will sell the iPhone. Evidently, the company’s won the right to carry it.