RIM - Blackberry Bold - AT&T - WTF?

So I was watching CNBC a bit ago and they were announcing the new Blackberry Bold (9000) phone.  I won’t get into the details of the device since we’ve all probably seen pictures of it on the internet anyway.  However, the announcement that it would only be available exclusively to AT&T right off shocked me.  The initial model will support GSM networks and later models will work with Sprint and Verizon, which is fine.  But when you are pricing your phone in the same range as the iPhone wouldn’t you want it to be on a different provider?  If I switched from Verizon to AT&T and I had the choice of an iPhone or the Bold for around the same price, you can be damn certain that I’d choose the iPhone.  I just don’t understand the decision.  I think it’s stupid to be exclusive to one provider anyway, but definitely not the one that a rival phone is exclusively on also.  Especially since the iPhone announced Exchange support and will attract more business users.  Don’t know…maybe AT&T are just really good negotiators and offered the RIM execs a fresh asian hooker for every 100 phones sold or something.