The plot thickens with Verizon’s next move in touch screen iPhone sweepstakes and the latest story says it doesn’t even involve the iPhone as we know it. After the WSJ reported earlier today that Verizon and Microsoft are working together on an iPhone knock-off of sorts, BusinessWeek fires back that Verizon and Apple are working together on an “iPhone lite” and a “media pad that would let users listen to music, view photos, and watch high-definition videos.”

One analyst quoted in the story threw cold water on the idea because Verizon’s network is CDMA-based which is different than AT&T’s GSM technology supported on today’s iPhone. Building two different types of iPhone-alikes would increase Apple’s costs. The story also posits that Apple is trying to get Verizon with its whopping 86.6 million subscribers to steer away of Palm’s much-hyped Pre due in June.

In any event, the cell phone market by the end of the year should be chock full of slick new models, helping to rouse the Sleepy economy out from its slumber.