No, there are phones that use Windows Mobile or Blackberry. There are also some niche phones that run on Symbian or Linux. There is supposed to be a new Firefox OS phone coming out this summer too.
I'm on T-mobile, we have an old plan, but my wife and I have 2 smartphones w/ unlimited data/txt and 700 minutes plus 1 flip phone that her grandma uses. We pay $115/month. Once her mom's plan is up in July, we'll be going on their new plan. I think 3 smartphones w/ unlimited everything (no throttling either) plus the 1 flip phone) will be around 150-170 (I forget the exact amount). All those prices are w/ buying the phone straight up. If you go the typical route, it'd be (for an iPhone) something like $150 up front, then $20/month for 2 years. Once that 2 years is up, the $20/month phone charge is dropped since you've paid off the phone in full (and w/o interest). If you live in an area where Tmobile has good coverage, then you can't beat it I don't think. We've never had any major issues with them.
Not just email, everything is flexible. I have the Nexus 4, which comes w/o any add ons by the phone manufacturer and I can basically make my phone look and work however I want. Don't like the stock messaging service? Download a new one. Don't like your home screen? Download a new clock, change the grid layout or dock. I only made a handful of changes, but the possibilities are pretty much endless. That is my major hangup with the iPhone. They all look and feel the same. If it works for you, then it is perfect. It just wasn't for me (which was surprising cause I love apple products). Here are a few home screens that I found that are all from the same phone, but look completely different. Mine looks nothing like any of these either. there are other things you can change/modify, but the look/feel of the phone is the easiest to convey w/o actually playing with the phone itself.
Home is Sprint: $160, four phones family plan, 1,500 min, unlimited text and internet, free cell to cell calls, night begins at 7 PM Work is Verizon, and I don't know how much that costs.
$65 a month through T-Mobile for Unlimited Talk, Text and 2.5 GB's of fast speed internet (if I go over, my internet for the rest of the billing cycle goes slower, probably 2G, with no extra charge) including taxes and before my discount. Add on top of that the $20 per month I owe on the HTC One for the next two years, it's basically $85 a month.
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/go...ersion-android/story?id=19288465#.UafDp5XWVUQ Google just announced that the HTC One will be available w/ stock android. If this was an option back in February, I would have thought long and hard about shelling out the extra $250 for this over the Nexus4. Same goes for the GS4 Google edition.
