Existing Verizon customers get iPhone preorders at 3 a.m. February 3

Verizon has updated its iPhone landing page to include a countdown and a message for existing customers to come back to the site, presumably to preorder the iPhone.

In true Apple fashion (adding a countdown), when the numbers reach zero, a day that's been in the making for more than four years will finally commence. Almost immediately after Apple's announcement of its exclusivity deal with AT&T, rumors of Verizon's entrance as an iPhone vendor surfaced.

Now, on February 3, those loyal customers who have been holding out, ignoring the iPhone's siren song (something that most likely sounds like Jack Johnson or John Mayer), will have the opportunity to place their iPhone order, ending AT&T's stranglehold on the U.S. iPhone market.

Existing customers will be able to preorder their iPhone 4 (in black only) as a 16GB ($199) or a 32GB ($299) model--with a two-year contract, of course. The Verizon iPhone will officially debut February 10, just in time for a perfect Valentine's Day gift.

Are you an existing Verizon customer planning to preorder your iPhone? Let me know in the comments!

Update, February 2 at 5:55 a.m. PT: And now both Verizon Wireless and Apple have put out their official reminder that existing Verizon Wireless subscribers can place their iPhone orders on February 3 on the Apple and Verizon Wireless sites. Then on February 9 everyone else will get a crack at ordering the Verizon iPhone 4, for delivery or to reserve for in-store pick up beginning February 10.

"We thought it fitting to say thank you to our customers by giving them the phone they want, a week before the general population," Verizon Wireless CEO Dan Mead said in a statement.