You know, I actually generally like the Storm, although it did certainly start running into major walls the last year due to hardware limitations. Anyways, That's really funny, because I went into a Madison area VZ store on launch day and the rep who sold me mine also laughed when she saw me pull out my phone and said "Ah, you're going to be replacing your Storm" with a very "knowing" smile.
I'm guessing there isn't a lot of love-loss between RIM and VZ right now, even if they are working on future products together.