I now get my choice of cell companies

I would have bought an IPhone soon after they came out except for one thing.  I did not like and did not want to be locked into a contract with the company they had contracted with to be the carrier.  It was not many months after the IPhone had hit the market that I saw my first Refurbished Unlocked Cell Phone with their name on it.   I thought at first that it might just be a cheap knock off but found out it was the real thing.  The only difference was the chip had been replaced and now it could work on a different phone company.