A friend of mine works at AT&T in Crossgates. He was given the iPhone for free due to being one of the top salesmen in the country. Three months later, he purposefully broke the screen and threw it out. THREW IT OUT.
Personally, I've used the iPhone a couple of times, and it's just not for me. I need tactile keys. Same with the HTC Touch. If you use a phone for actual typing, texting, or business emails and such, touch screens are not for you. Plus, I've never seen more typos than from an iPhone user, they're just not accurate enough.
As for Verizon vs. AT&T vs. Sprint (T-Mobile isn't even in the competition), Sprint wins hands down. I currently have Sprint, and will not leave them unless they give me a reason to Customer Service-wise. Let me break it down for you (I'll try to use the closest phones/plans as possible):
We'll go with ~500 minutes, unlimited text (to ANYONE, not just your carrier), unlimited picture, unlimited data, 7PM nights.
ATT:
Tilt*: $299.99
Text, Talk & Web 450: $89.99
Early Nights and Weekends: $8.99
Total monthly charges: $98.99
Verizon:
XV6800: $399.99
PDA/Smartphone Nationwide Email & Messaging 450: $99.99
7PM not available with this plan (at least from the Verizon Website)
Total monthly charges: $99.99
Sprint:
Mogul: $299.99 - $100.00 MIR
SERO** 500 offer: $30.00
Unlimited Nights & Weekends starting at 7pm: Free
Unlimited Power Pack Text Messages: Free
Total monthly charges: $30.00
Obviously Sprint is the best choice here. Not only is the cheapest monthly plan, but it's also the cheapest for the equipment, too. Some argue that Sprint does not offer as good service as Verizon, which is clearly why they are not as intelligent as The Fuj. What they fail to recognize is that they're holding this amazing piece of machinery called a "cell phone". It has buttons on it, that control things called "options" and "settings". One of these settings is for "Roaming". As you all (should) know, the only other CDMA carrier in the Northeast is Verizon, so logically, locking to "Roam only" would lock you to the Verizon towers. Bingo, Verizon service without the Verizon premium. Simple enough.
About the Mogul (which I'll be upgrading to in April), the upcoming ROM for it will unlock EVDO Rev. A, which is the fastest wireless data we currently have available until WiMax comes out (also, offered by Sprint), and it will unlock GPS, which will allow Google Maps to use GPS instead of cell tower triangulation.
Verizon are assholes for charging a $40-50 premium for PDAs, that's ridiculous. Plus Verizon is notorious for locking down their equipment for 3rd party apps, negating mp3s for "ringtone use" and even locking down the address book on phones so you have to go to the store to pay the $5 to have it transferred over to your new phone. And the iPhone's "luxury tax" is just as dumb. That is all.
*The XV6800 and Mogul are identical. The Tilt, erm... tilts.
**This price plan requires you to have a Spint employees email address. Luckily, all Sprint employees have their address on their business cards, and if you REALLY feel like ripping off the system, Googs knows plenty of them (Search "@sprint.com"). The SERO website is located at
SERO Welcome!.