iPhone (finally) coming to VZW on Tuesday (update: available end of Jan)

Although the burning red invitation is light on details, it's a foregone conclusion that VZW will use the event to announce a CDMA iPhone running on its network.

The largest U.S. wireless carrier will make the long-awaited announcement at an event Tuesday in New York City, a person familiar with the matter said Friday.

It wasn't immediately clear when Verizon would have the device in stores.

John Paczkowski writes for Digital Daily that Jobs will indeed appear, joining Verizon President and COO Lowell McAdam onstage:

While the appearance isn’t 100 percent assured, sources in a position to know tell me that, barring any unforeseen circumstances, Jobs will likely join McAdam onstage in New York when he announces the addition of the iPhone to its handset lineup.

Unfortunately the device is just a CDMA iPhone 4, not an iPhone 5:

The Verizon phone will be similar to the iPhone 4 but run on the carrier's CDMA technology, people familiar with the matter have said.

It looks like we'll have to wait until this summer to see that.

It won't likely run on Verizon's LTE (4G) network either, according to John Gruber:

LTE is untested, has spotty coverage, and consumes more power. There will be LTE iPhones eventually, but not soon. Trust me, take it to the bank: the upcoming Verizon iPhone won’t be LTE. I don’t even think thesecond iPhone to hit Verizon will use it.

Update 1/8 - WSJ reports:

Apple’s iPhone will make its way to Verizon Wireless stores around the end of the month, a person familiar with the matter said. The largest U.S. wireless carrier by subscribers will make the long-awaited announcement to carry the iPhone on Tuesday at an event in  New York City.

Photo: AllThingsD