Lets drop the fanboy games. Good for Verizon/Voda on the rumor they are getting the exclusive on the Storm in the US. RIM has made the Apple iPhone a strong device as well as Apple making RIM continue to innovate strong devices. If RIM chose to give native support to more than just the windows OS over the years they could have certainly made Apple's job tougher. However what the service provider's think is good for them is not good for the device manufacture or end users.

Exclusives suck for consumers and would hope all device manufactures smarten up soon and stop the service provider games and/or at very least give each device a way to be sold unlocked, and unbranded. It's not a lie that Apple would sell a TON more iPhones if they made both a GSM and a CDMA model with no exclusive deals, the same goes for RIM. RIM would sell a TON more Blackberry's if they made both GSM and CDMA models with no exclusive deals.

As for the service providers it's always been the same story and always will be till Verizon and ATT upgrade to 4G LTE in the next few years. Some places Verizon is better, some places ATT is better, both are top tier service providers. Both cripple hardware. The device manufactures should be the ones in control of the hardware since the providers in crippling devices are altering the function and design of the device to the consumer. With unlocked, unbranded, uncrippled devices the providers would make more in the long run from just doing what they are meant to do, provide the service.

Apple makes RIM innovate
RIM makes Apple innovate
ATT makes Verizon innovate
Verizon makes ATT innovate

And the educated consumer wins......