Not much benefit to a choice of carriers... (Score 1)

In theory it would be great to have a choice of carriers for the iPhone. In reality, though, the only US alternative to AT&T in GSM carriers is T-Mobile, which sucks so bad they make AT&T look good in comparison. The only choice I'd be really interested in is Verizon, whose excellent network I do miss terribly. But that's not a realistic option because 1) I don't think it would be worth the investment required to produce a CDMA-variant of the iPhone, 2) this would violate Apple's 5 year(?) exclusivity agreement with AT&T, 3) Verizon is probably still too smug to give in to Apple's demands for branding/marketing restrictions, revenue sharing, and affordable flat rate price plans.