I DID buy an IPhone and I still don't have any problems arising from their arrangement with AT&T.
It is normal in the cell phone industry to pay a partial price of the phone up front (or pay nothing up front), and amortize the rest of the phone's cost over the period of the contract with the carrier. These people seem to want to get away with not paying full price for the phone that they now have.
Lately Google has been using Democratic Gestapo tactics in their fight against Apple. I strongly suspect some Google employees are behind this.