I don't doubt that Jobs and APPL have done it again with a cool innovative product.
But do you think AT&T will help or hinder the iPhone's success? They have a very bad rep for customer service and billing.
As a 25+ year observer of Jobs I have zero doubt that he went with AT&T strictly and solely for the branding, otherwise he'd have chosen T-Mobile for superior customer service. Verizon is CDMA and not viable, and don't even think about Sprint.
Apple went with AT&T both because AT&T has the largest customer base (60 million) and because Verizon said no, due to Apple’s demand for control over the product and the service.
If anything, the iPhone will give AT&T a kick in the butt to roll out 3G faster, enabling the iPhone 2 to support the technology.