The Verizon iPhone rumor is as old as the iPhone itself. So whenever anyone trots it out, you take it with a grain of salt. It's like The Beatles coming to iTunes. It will happen eventually, but who knows when. That said, today's Wall Street Journal report about Verizon readying to launch the iPhone in early 2011 has all the makings of a good old Apple-controlled leak once again. And so it may be time to really believe. Now, I of course don't know for sure that Apple fed WSJ this story -- but let's look at the recent history. In January, as rumors were swirling about the iPad, the WSJ had a story suggesting the tablet computer could run around $1,000. At the time, I pointed out why this reeked of Apple setting expectations low so they could blow them out of the water. A few days later, a former Marketing Manager at Apple backed this up . The result? Steve Jobs on stage announcing the iPad would start at just $499. Boom.