As of right now, employees of Apple are no longer allowed to use their vacation hours in an attempt to brace for an upcoming event that has not yet been named by Apple. Could this be the famed launch of the Verizon iPhone? Some experts have speculated so, but at this time there is no hard evidence to suggest that this could be the case.
The freezing of all vacation hours will reportedly start at the end of the month in January, and will apply to all retail employees that do not have seniority with the company. The fact that they are only locking down the retail employees suggests that they are expecting a huge retail release around that time. With the iPad already out, and no other devices announced, there is really nothing else that it could be other than a new unlocked iPhone 4 launch.
This also means that Apple could be expecting to announce the new launch at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show, where all eyes will be on Apple to see if they make any huge announcements. Although they have given no clue that they are planning on making the Verizon iPhone announcement, it seems to make the most sense for the company, logically.
A Verizon iPhone launch announcement would pretty much overshadow any other announcements that come at the Consumer Electronics Show. With the freezing of employee vacations coming just a bit into the future, it will be interesting to see what kind of announcement they end up making. A freezing of employee vacations in retail is only something that is done when they know that something time consuming is on the horizon. The Verizon iPhone 4 unlocked launch would effectively be the biggest tech announcement of the year for the most popular device in the world. The announcement has been long awaited and will satisfy many users.
