We don’t put a lot of stock into gossip here at WebConferencing.org, but this one has received a decent amount of press, and if it’s true, it could have a big impact on the video conferencing market. Much of the hubbub surrounding the end of AT&T’s exclusivity deal with Apple will be about the standoff between that service provider and its competitors, but we’re more interested in this: rumor has it that Apple is developing an iPhone for Verizon, and that that smartphone will offer native video conferencing.

The Wall Street Journal posted the rumor about the new CMDA phone Apple is developing for Verizon, and said that the device will be thinner and have a faster processor. As this new iPhone will allegedly have a 960 x 640 display, it’s being dubbed the “iPhone HD,” and to really underscore the awesomeness of this display—which is double the current iPhone 3GS resolution, in case you were wondering—video conferencing would be best.

Tech blog Engadget supplied the information about the iPhone’s new moniker, and also an announcement date (June 22, 2010), and Jason O’Grady, mobile tech blogger extraordinaire, suggested on his ZDNet blog that an iPhone video conferencing application would be the best way to showcase the new display. O’Grady is certainly right there, and the fact that a seasoned mobile industry follower is suggesting this possibility gives the rumor some grounding in reality.

The iPhone does already support some multimedia conferencing, like the Fuze Meeting application offered by a web conferencing provider Fuze Box, but a native application would change the game. It’d likely be pretty costly so that would put it out of reach for most users, but for those with a need it would obviously be helpful. And of course, it would likely pave the way for bigger video conferencing companies to develop competing applications (getting them approved will be a different story).

Still, we’ll have to wait—possibly until June 22—and see whether next generation iPhones will have native video conferencing, but for now we can only speculate on the effect it would have on mobile marketing.