Hunter's made a good point in that an acoustic is stand alone and you don't need to worry about amps and the like. In my experience it's all to easy to be distracted from the main business of learning guitar. With all the hardware and software for an electric guitar around there's so much that can take away your focus.

That said, there's nothing like an electric guitar! For some reason I denied myself of one for far too long and when I got one I realised I'd missed out massively as I was always a rocker!

So if you can resist the temptation to be distracted by all the bells and whistles that an electric guitar offers then go for an electric and just play it through an amp plain and simple. Once you've learned power chords and palm muting you'll just never want to put the thing down, if that's your bag.... :D.

You can get a million sounds from an electric and only one from an acoustic but you'll eventually have both as they each have their own qualities and appeal.

When you're learning on an acoustic everyone can hear you but with an electric you can use headphones (careful with the volume there) and your early plinking won't drive people round the bend...

It's way easier on the finger tips with an electric when you're starting out as the strings are of a much lighter gauge.

Good luck!