According to Digitimes, Apple has contracted Pegatron to manufacture CDMA version of the iPhone. Pegatron is expected to ship around 10 million iPhone units annually with production starting in August or September. Though Pegatron declined to comment, it has been rumored for past few months that Apple has partnered up with the company for assemble of CDMA iPhone.

Like last year, rumors of iPhone for Verizon are getting strong just before launch of next version of iPhone in June. If Apple plans to launch CDMA version of iPhone it might turnout to be the most highly anticipated release this year in smartphone market.

In related news, John Gruber of Daring Fireball says “The very little I know is that Apple has a skunkworks CDMA iPhone project. I don’t think it’s anything new – I think they’ve always had a skunkworks CDMA iPhone project, very much like the skunkworks Intel version of Mac OS X they kept alive during the PowerPC era. It’s just obvious common sense: be prepared.”

He adds, “So, technically, yes, Apple could offer a CDMA iPhone HD this year. If they do – if – I don’t think it’d be ready alongside the GSM iPhone HD for AT&T this June or July; I’d guess that it’d be announced in September at annual iPod event. (If Apple has a CDMA iPhone HD ready to unveil in June, they’ve kept it under far, far tighter wraps than any previous new iPhone.)”

We agree with John that if Apple releases a CDMA iPhone for Verizon it won’t be before end of Q3 2010. However, if Apple releases iPhone for Verizon it will be a big setback for AT&T, as iPhone has been the only growth vehicle for AT&T in past three years.