Verizon: "Wednesday is a Big Day," Apple: AT&T a "Great Partner"

The "iPhone is coming to Verizon OMG OMG" rumor has in many ways seemed poised to overtake the "thing starting with T" rumor ahead of tomorrow's Apple event, the purpose of which has been shrouded in secrecy. Anonymous reports surfaced last week about Verizon being in last-minute talks with Apple, one of Boy Genius's inside sources allegedly claims that Verizon store managers have been told to prepare for an announcement via webcast tomorrow. At the same time, Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook took the opportunity yesterday to praise AT&T and downplay rumors of a second iPhone carrier in the US.

Boy Genius, who's had a few successes in getting good leaks, just passed on a whisper from one of his sources inside Verizon.

For its part, Apple - having announced record profits for the holiday season - gave strong public backing to its exclusive US carrier yesterday, and sought to discourage any assumption that Apple had made up its mind to go with multiple carriers in the US as it has in numerous other countries. "I don't want to imply that would happen in every market or that we are headed that way in every market," Apple COO Tim Cook said. Gene Munster, a prominent analyst with Piper Jaffray, had a question with a bit of an edge to it, asking "can you remind us the benefits of sticking with a single carrier in the US?" Cook dodged the barb, saying "AT&T is a great partner," and reminding listeners that "they have more mobile broadband usage than any carrier in the world." He asserted that AT&T's efforts to improve their service has met with Apple's approval.

While most analysts agree that Apple is likely to move to a second and possibly third carrier after its exclusivity deal with AT&T expires sometime later this year, the assumption is that Apple will continue to sell the iPhone through the largest wireless carrier in the United States.