Verizon iPhone 5 countdown clock: the scoop on the one to wait for

Those who are planning to buy a Verizon iPhone 4 but have spent the past month failing to do may be better off at this point simply waiting for the arrival of the Verizon iPhone 5, which Apple's history says will be introduced in early June. That puts the iPhone 5 countdown clock at almost precisely three months from today, and if you think you can wait that long, here's what you need to know about Verizon's next iPhone:

- First, to be clear, there's no guarantee that the iPhone 5 will arrive in June. Or for that matter July. But Apple has never left an iPhone generation on the market for more than a year (aside from bargain-binning it in the second year), and the iPhone 4 will be a year old by this summer. Smart money says Apple won't delay the iPhone 5 overall, just to avoid hurting the feelings of the Verizon iPhone 4 early adopter.

- You can buy a Verizon iPhone 4 now and then dump it in favor of the iPhone 5 when it comes out, but it'll cost you. If you use up your Verizon upgrade eligibility (which comes around once per year at best) on the iPhone 4, you'll be looking at paying a minimum of $399 for the entry level Verizon iPhone 5, regardless of its $199 price tag. Of course you can then sell your Verizon iPhone 4 to defray that cost, but that'll be right around the time everyone else is also trying to dump their Verizon iPhone 4 in favor of Verizon iPhone 5 – not exactly a seller's market.

- The iPad 2 has given a few hints regarding the iPhone 5. First, the use of the new faster A5 processor in the former means that it's ready for use in the latter as well. So the Verizon iPhone 5 should be significantly, and not marginally, faster than the iPhone 4. And the fact that the iPad 2 comes in white… well, we're not even going to go there.

- There could ultimately be a single unified iPhone 5 with antenna technology built in for both Verizon and AT&T. Or Apple could continue to keep them separate. But as it turns out, the Verizon iPhone 4 is already hardware-capable of being used on either Verizon or AT&T, and Apple simply didn't go that route for unknown strategic reasons. What that means is that Apple has already solved the challenge of creating a carrier-hybrid iPhone model, and shouldn't have any trouble doing a hybrid iPhone 5 if it chooses to. Here's more on the iPhone 5.