Nothing forces a consumer to load a firmware update.

I was already an ATT customer and I bought an iPhone last week. EDGE could be faster, sure, but other than that I'm quite happy with my purchase. $399 felt like the right price for it.

A friend (a notorious cheapskate) played with it for about 5 minutes and he will be buying one once his Verizon contract expires in March. He said it was the all-in-one device he's been waiting for. Without the existing contract, he would've bought one that same day.