The WSJ reports that the long, long-rumored Verizon iPhone will be entering mass production by the end of the year. Their source claims to be “briefed by Apple,” which gives this rumor the usual amount of credibility, but it does make some sense if Apple intends to offer a variant of the iPhone 4 before introducing the iPhone 5 in June of 2011. The source also confirmed that, by the way.

The fun thing is that if the earlier rumors were true, this would be the type of leak that would follow. But until Steve Jobs gets up on stage with his counterpart at Verizon and they embrace like brothers, I’m remaining skeptical.

This sort of thing might get “confirmed” by increased orders of iPhone 4 displays or cameras over the next few months, but there’s no way to be sure. In the meantime, we’ve heard chatter that Qualcomm has had iPhone-related projects underway for some time now, but again, this is all what we in the detective business call circumstantial evidence. I doubt we’ll get a sneak peak this time around, either.