Report: Verizon Will Sell “Verizon-Ready” iPhone in 2011

“We would love to carry [the iPhone], but we have to earn it. I can’t speak for Apple.”

— Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg

So that “Verizon-ready” CDMA iPhone that Apple will begin mass-producing by the end of the year? Verizon will actually be selling it. This according to an updated version of the same Wall Street Journal story I pointed to Wednesday that says, explicitly, what the first version did not: “Apple Inc. is making a version of its iPhone that Verizon Wireless will sell early next year.”

Evidently, Verizon (VZ) has, in the words of CEO Ivan Seidenberg, earned the right to carry it. Or at least that’s what the Journal’s being told.

Asked for his thoughts on the report at the CTIA conference in San Francisco yesterday Lowell McAdam, Verizon’s president and chief operating officer, declined to confirm a deal with Apple.

“This is one of those things that rolls out every few weeks whether there’s a basis for it or not,” he said. “I can’t give you any insights. But I think Apple is the one that has to make that announcement. What I’ve always said is I expect at some point in time our business interests are going to align. I think things like LTE are another great reason why they’d want a device or tablet on that network. But I don’t have anything to say today about timing.”

Whatever. As I’ve said before, at this point I’d be happy to see the iPhone added to Verizon’s lineup, if only to stop this endless conga line of rumors.