Early Edge is a promotion that is tied to a specific phone. The phone changes every once in a while, but it is always a phone, or max 2 on promotion at any one time. Since you are not eligible for any upgrade yet, the price to pay for going early is a restriction on which phone you can choose. I am sure there is some agreement between the manufacturer and Verizon for promoting and selling a certain phone and this is one way they do that agreement.
Otherwise, Verizon has pretty much stopped early upgrades. Of the many posts on this forum with the same basic request, I know of only 1 person that was given early upgrade on contract in the last 6 months.
