iPad coming to Verizon October 28… with a catch

A prelude to the iPhone? Probably not.

For its part, Verizon will offer only the WiFi versions of the iPad, bundling them with its Verizon MiFi 2200 Intelligent Mobile Hotspot routers for a suggested retail price of $629.99 for iPad Wi-Fi 16GB + MiFi, $729.99 for iPad Wi-Fi 32GB + MiFi and $829.99 for iPad Wi-Fi 64GB + MiFi.

Verizon is offering a monthly access plan to iPad customers of up to 1GB of data for $20 a month. In addition, the carrier will also offer all three iPad Wi-Fi models on a stand-alone basis.

“This is the perfect pairing for holiday travels,” said John Stratton, chief operating officer for Verizon Wireless. “iPad together with the nation’s largest and most reliable 3G data network allows customers to easily connect on the go wherever they are.”

Verizon's MiFi 2200, pictured above, is small enough to fit in a pocket and allows users to create a personal Wi-Fi cloud capable of sharing the high-speed Internet connectivity of the Verizon Wireless 3G Mobile Broadband network with up to five Wi-Fi-enabled devices. The MiFi 2200’s rechargeable battery provides up to four hours of active use and 40 hours of standby time on a single charge.

So, you can go into a Verizon store and buy an iPad, but you have to carry around a mobile router in order to use that iPad on Verizon’s network.

But the fact that the iPad is being sold in Verizon stores in the first place hints that the companies are starting to sit down and work things out. The iPhone is still bogged down in negotiations over things like buying music and movies over V-Cast (Verizon wants to put V-Cast on every iPhone, Apple says no because they have the iTunes Store already) and retail scope (Verizon wants to sell the iPhone in outlets besides its stores, Apple says no, they want to keep control over where the iPhone is sold).

I’m starting to think that the rumors of a CDMA capable iPhone means that the iPhone is coming to Sprint, not Verizon; instead, they’ll get a CDMA capable iPad.