It should come as no surprise that Apple wants to get such a popular phone on multiple networks, however, we thought they would just wait until the exclusive deal with AT&T expires next year. An iPhone Lite would allow them to circumvent the AT&T deal (if it’s sufficiently different) and get a bazillion other customers on the Verizon network.

BusinessWeek reports that Apple has already prototyped two new devices for Verizon, a smaller, cheaper version of the iPhone and … wait for it … “a media pad that would let users listen to music, view photos, and watch high-definition videos.”

Sounds like the Apple Tablet to me.

The media pad would be able to make calls over a Wi-Fi connection (what, no 3G?), presumably opening the device up for VoIP and other options.

BusinessWeek’s contacts were understandably reticent about the release dates for these devices, only saying that one of them (never specifying which) would be out as early as this summer. Just in time for WWDC perhaps? Maybe the iPhone Lite is the new iPhone we’ve been expecting to see at WWDC, although the new iPhone was supposed to have MORE features than the old one, not less.