Feb 3, 2011 07:54 GMT  ·  By

Apple is believed to be preparing its online store for the availability of the Verizon iPhone 4 given that the company has taken its online store down for maintenance.

We wouldn’t dare speculate that Apple has taken its store offline for multiple reasons, such as updating its range of MacBook laptops, or iMac desktop computers.

Intel itself said Sandy Bridge was a no-go for customers (computer vendors) such as Apple, therefore we shouldn’t expect a hardware refresh on the Mac front any time too soon.

What we can bet on is the fact that Apple’s CDMA (Verizon) iPhone 4 is on track to make an appearance in the store.apple.com listings any time now.

Apple and Verizon officially announced yesterday that pre-orders for the CDMA iPhone 4 would be available online beginning Thursday, February 3 through both the Apple Store and Verizon (at www.verizonwireless.com/iphone).

The two companies noted that, due to high demand, customer orders will be fulfilled on a first come, first served basis.

Beginning Wednesday, February 9, all qualified customers will be able to directly order a unit through the Apple Store for delivery or reserve for in-store pick up on February 10 and later.

Customers visiting their local Apple retail store on February 10th will be able to acquire a Verizon iPhone starting with 7 a.m, Apple said.

The pricing is $199 for the 16GB model and $299 for the 32GB model with a new two-year agreement.

Verizon Wireless customers will be able to use a feature called Personal Hotspot, enabled in their CDMA iPhone 4 units by iOS 4.2.6, the latest version of Apple’s mobile operating system.

Personal hotspot which allows users of a Verizon iPhone 4 to use their handset to connect up to five Wi-Fi enabled devices.

We’ll keep you posted with any changes we see as soon as Apple’s store is back online.

We trust you to do the same (in the comments) in case you spot anything else besides the Verizon iPhone.

Update: Apple's online store is live again featuring (what else?) the Verizon iPhone 4.