Looks like the iPhone may have again managed to suck the air out of CES, although this time the news appears to be coming from Verizon, not Apple.
Invitations for a Verizon Wireless event in New York City went out to the press Friday afternoon, just a day after Verizon's own CES press conference here in Las Vegas came and went with no mention of iAnything.
The invite reads only that Verizon wants to share its "latest news" with us, but the Wall Street Journal is reporting that the news will be all about the iPhone.
All Things Digital's John Paczkowski, meanwhile, says his sources claim that none other than Steve Jobs will (very probably, at least) join Verizon president Lowell McAdam for the event.
Naturally, the reports are still unconfirmed by Apple and Verizon.
But that didn't stop the blaring iPhone headlines from drowning out most of the other news coming out of CES on FridayĆ¢€”and indeed, I'm reminded of the day nearly four years ago when the official unveiling of the first iPhone stopped CES dead in its tracks.
I happened to be in the normally chaotic CES press lounge back in 2007 as the first iPhone news was breaking, and you could practically hear a pin drop.
This time around, I was so busy running around from one meeting to the next that I didn't see the screaming headlines until late afternoon, once I'd come up for air.
The fact that Verizon appears to be hosting the iPhone event (assuming, of course, that the Wall Street Journal has its facts straight) also represents something of a departure for Apple, which usually reserves all the big iPhone announcements for itself.
But hey, stranger things have happened. And however it happens, I can't wait for the "is Verizon getting the iPhone?" guessing game to come to an end, once and for all.
In any case, all eyes will soon be on Verizon's New York press event, slated to begin Tuesday at 11 a.m. ET.
And if the Big Red network doesn't produce its own iPhone that day, expect to hear loud groans ranging from the Statue of Liberty to the Golden Gate Bridge.
— Ben Patterson is a technology writer for Yahoo! News.
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