Looks like during the summer season Dish is offering what most would consider to be very fair upgrade promotions for both existing and new customers.
Some folks don't like making a commitment to Dish programming. I don't mind making a commitment for "X" number of months since: (a) DirectTV has inferior picture quality and I'm not a big NFL fan; (b) Charter cable in my area compresses the signal very badly such that their SD looks horrible; their HD channels offerings are limited; their DVR sucks compared to my Dish unit (Dish unit has faster channels changing, very few lockups, much better programming guide, and better build quality); and, Charter cable pricing in my area is more costly than Dish, tho recent price increases at Dish have narrowed the gap a bit; and, finally, Charter customer service is horrific compared to Dish (not that Dish customer service is anywhere near perfect, Charter is just hugely worse).
I'm looking forward to the new PocketDish units that should be available by the end of summer -- if they have wifi, as suggested, and allow down-rezzed HD content to transfer Dish will have a very compelling "total entertainment package" between their PocketDish, HD-DVRs and programming tiers.
Now if Dish would just hire some new marketing people......