Verizon may not show off iPhone at CES

It’s looking more and more like Verizon will focus on its 4G offerings at next month’s CES festivities, and may leave any sort of iPhone announcement for a later date.

Verizon’s big CES press conference has a lot of guest speakers scheduled. But none of them has anything to do with Apple. Instead, it will be all about other manufacturers and the mobile carrier’s brand new next-gen network.

In its official teaser for the press conference, Verizon promises “a sneak peek of Android-based 4G LTE consumer devices.” It is big enough of a story to be the only story for Verizon. 4G will be the most discussed topic in the mobile world during next month’s trade show, and Verizon has a lot of catching up to do. Sprint and T-Mobile have already launched their 4G networks and are gaining traction. Verizon is the third to enter the race.

It’s the end of 2010 and everyone’s reflecting back on the big stories of the year. We can already say that at this time next year, one of the things we will be looking back on is the emergence of 4G mobile technology.

Nevertheless, isn’t it possible that a Verizon iPhone will be announced at CES? Of course anything is possible, but it looks less likely, especially since there have been so such rumblings, and the rumor mill has died down instead of ramping up.

Apple always likes to make big announcements at exclusive events when nothing else is happening, so it looks like this might be something that Apple will control, instead of Verizon. [[Verizon]]