It isn't as crazy as it sounds. According to a report by the Commercial Times apple will be launching three iPhones in June. First a 2.75g (edge like the original iPhone), an updated 3g, and a Chinese targeted CDMA version. The updated 3g phone is no surprise as we have already been expecting it for months.
The CDMA version is a direction Apple will have to go eventually if they want to put the iPhone on every network worldwide. If released possibly some hacking could put that CDMA phone on carriers like Verizon (who refused the iPhone originally).
The new edge version if it really is real would most likely be very similar to the original iPhone.