Jim Dalrymple reporting for The Loop:

The Verizon event will be held in New York, according to the invitation received by The Loop. While it doesn’t mention anything about Apple this could be the Verizon iPhone. Typically, Apple’s special events are held on the company’s campus in Cupertino, Calif.

One could assume that this is just some Verizon event where they’ll pull out a bunch of ho-hum Android devices, but the Wall Street Journal’s Yukari Iwatani Kane and Shayndi Raice are reporting that Verizon will be announcing a Verizon iPhone.

The largest U.S. wireless carrier will make the long-awaited announcement at an event Tuesday in New York City, a person familiar with the matter said Friday.

But, it might not just be Verizon on stage to announce the CDMA iPhone. John Paczkowski has sources that tell him that Steve Jobs may be joining Verizon President and COO Lowell McAdam on stage for the announcement. I’m not so sure about it though. If Verizon runs the whole event they can spend a lot of time putting AT&T down, all Steve Jobs can do is talk about how great of an opportunity it will be to add another carrier in the US. Although, Steve Jobs could be taking the stage to give a bit of a hat-tip to AT&T assuring them that Apple isn’t abandoning the carrier for Verizon.

But, if Steve Jobs is going to take the stage why is the event hosted by Verizon and not Apple? John Gruber wrote on Daring Fireball shortly after news broke of the event answering that very question. His theory:

Apple is fully aware that when they say “We’re having an event next week” that people expect big news and a new product. If they were hosting this event, speculation would be rampant that it would involve a new iPad and maybe an iPhone 5, in addition to the expected Verizon deal.

Seems reasonable to me. I’m certain if Apple were to hold the event everyone would have jumped to conclusions assuming some sort of huge product announcement. But, with Verizon holding the event the only expectation is that they’ll announce a CDMA iPhone.