Giving up the bottle before age 1 seems a little soon as your child may lack the hand-eye coordination for a cup. My son could drink juice and water from disposible sippy cups with no problems, from the time he was 1 1/2 (the small disposible type sold at Target which are reusable and easy to grip for small hands). By the time they hit 3, they should be using a cup.
That said, my son was also also hooked on bottles until fairly recently (he's 3), with no help from our pediatrician who said taking it away from him would do no good as it's a source of comfort and that he might stop driking his milk altogether.
I was concerned about speech problems so one day I casually mentioned to my son that bottles were for babies with no teeth and that he could damage his teeth if he kept drinking from a bottle. A lightbulb sort of went off and he asked, "it can?". And cold turkey, he decided he didn't want to use the bottle and started happily using the vast assortment of cups with straws I had previously tried (for his milk) with no success.
Of the ones I tried (Gerber, Playtex, etc), the Munchkin 10 Oz Mighty Grip Straw Cup (sold at Target and Amazon) stands out for its easy-to-grip shape and light weight for younger kids. It's most like a bottle, and you can skip the sippy cup. Cleaning of the straw cups is very easy if you use a small brush for the straw, such as Dr. Brown's Natural Flow Cleaning Brush, 4 Pack (sold at amazon). Lastly, even though my son can drink from a cup (and often does), the no-spill aspect of straw cups is a huge advantage.