iPhone Officially Coming to Canada

[Mr. Mayor]

Well today is a great day for Canadians. In a brief statement today Rogers chief exec Ted Rogers announced that the iPhone will be coming to Canada sometime in 2008! Canadians from coast to coast have been clammering for the iPhone, even though numerous jailbreak and unlock methods are available...

Anyone else out there pumped about this? I'm really interested to see what this does to plan prices up here in Canada... hopefully it has a very positive effect!!!

[mpancha]

I want to be pumped, but I've been an on again off again Rogers subscribers sine I came to Canada in 2005 because of their pricing and service.

Before I get excited there is one key piece of information they left out. An iPhone is just another phone until you have an unlimited data plan, and yes, it has to be unlimited.

How much does Rogers plan on swindling us out of on data? IF its $20 unlimited (and true unlimited, not just unlimited email like the companies have been doing for years now, but just recently advertised) access, then I'm excited and will be setting aside money for an iPhone or 3.

Until then... I don't care what phones come here... I"m still using my old Sony Ericsson b/c it plays mp3s and makes and receives phone calls. I'm not upgrading until I get a valid data plan.

[madmacmat]

Experience shows that probably there'll be a year or so after the iphone is available in your country that you'll see reasonable plans coming up... the first year they'll try to milk the cow on the greedy....

But that this finally happens is good news.... mymy, iphone everywhere, the SDK and business application around the corner... the future looks bright! Already now I feel like at a campfire telling old tales when I loudly remember my first jailbreak back in oct'07...

grin

[mpancha]

So looks like July 11th is the date for Canada.

I want to be excited, but I'm not. Its got the potential of being a great tool, but I am still rather annoyed with Steve Jobs' holier than thou attitude. I once was proud of the apple logo on my computer, now not so much.

That said, I've been using a Blackberry for a few days now, there are a few things the iPhone has that would be nice on the blackberry, but overall there is no feature on the iPhone that I personally need, or want, that will make me run and buy one. Doesn't mean I won't own one in the future, just I think $100 is a fair value for the iPHone, without a contract, and unlimited data to me is only worth $15-20/month max. Canadian telcos manage to screw things up, so I"ll sit back and let early adopters beta test for me.

[Mr. Mayor]

Mat,

That's what I'm really interested in seeing... how the Canadian carriers (er, Rogers) handle the pricing plans. What is the 'unlimited' plan going to be? $100, $200/mth?... haha... Canadian carriers are notoriously expensive in comparison to their American counterparts...

Lets hope the iPhone helps drive down the price of plans across Canada.

[mpancha]

There was a quote on IT World that I read the other day in the Blogging Idol section. It was in regards to a question about data plans and wireless carriers.

The price of mobile data access is higher in Canada than it is in Rwanda. In fact when I first looked into this in April of 2007, some mobility providers in Canada were charging rates almost 21 times higher than Terracom in Rwanda. Mobile data rates are also significantly cheaper than Canada in Egypt, Botswana, Vietnam and Bolivia. In fact, why limit comparisons to things terrestrial? Sending data using a Canadian mobility provider costs more than sending the same amount of data from the Hubble Space Telescope!

As absurd as some of that sounds, I don't question it because its very likely true.

[Meepinhiemer]

lucky them

[madmacmat]

- nice quote meep... People maybe forget the unfairness of this comparison with hubble: up there You don't have bears that specially like to rip apart radio antennas, hehehe....

So Mayor, You are really talking like in the revolution times when it comes to the release... I have no idea about the impact the iPhone might have there- in germany it was and is fancy but nothing more, really... not one of those business junks sold their blackberry, for instance... with the 3G iPhone temptation might be MUCH bigger...

can't wait to hear of marauding mobs in the streets of Ontario because of the unfairly high mobile fees... iphone, toujours!

We'll see...

[Mr. Mayor]

It's not going to be HUGE, but it is going to be VERY popular.

There are a lot of Apple fans in Canada, but unfortunately there isn't much of an Apple presence up here. I believe there are only a handful of stores in major centers... Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal...

That said... I went to an Apple Aperture event a while back here in Winnipeg...and the place was jam packed.

Most of the business-types will keep their blackberry's, but there will be some converts... and then the rest of the Apple fans will go ahead and pick up the phone for sure.

Will be good.

[madmacmat]

What I find quite intriguing is the impact the 3G now seems to have on the market... Here in germany suddenly people I would never suspected to get involved with it now suddenly turn up to me to get the latest news about availability and usage specs- might the new iphone be the key to an iPod- type distribution? I think not but popularity and the impression people received from the first version (reliability, specs, usability) seem to leave their obvious impact... which to me is sort of relieving!