ROGERS, THE ONLY Canadian GSM carrier, has been rather tight-lipped on when it will be able to offer the iPhone to Canadians – and Apple has said very little on the matter as well as it moves millions of them in the U.S. and Europe.
However, major hints have been dropping all over the place that the GSM-only phone/music handset will be coming soon to Rogers Wireless.
While many have blamed Rogers for dragging its feet on securing the iPhone as an option for its customers (and saying that Rogers data rates would make it impossible for it to affordably offer the device anyway), the simple truth is that Apple, the iPhone’s maker, has been concentrating on the larger English-language markets before turning its attention to Canada.
Plus, Apple wants a bigger piece of the pie than the other handset makers, trading an exclusive relationship – like it has with AT&T in the U.S. – for a piece of the carrier’s sales and monthly revenue from iPhone subscribers. While Rogers clearly and dearly wants to offer the iPhone here (and would love to have it in time for Christmas, since Canadians have indicated they will spend big on digital stuff this season and really want to buy an iPhone), Apple has less leverage in Canada because as a GSM-only device, Rogers Wireless is the only place it can go in Canada. Stateside, AT&T is not the only GSM operator and it is paying an extra price for iPhone exclusivity.
So, it’s up to Rogers and Apple to come to their own deal, which they most certainly will, if they haven’t already.
As for the additional hints, Molson let it slip last month that it is preparing a contest in Canada where one of the prizes is an iPhone. And, the web site endgadget.com reported last week that Apple store salespeople in the Eaton Centre are due for their iPhone training courses this week. The site also has an ad mockup on it that says Rogers will begin “pre-selling” the iPhone in December and begin selling and shipping in January, but to be honest, the ad looks like a fake.
The most telling aspect, however, that the iPhone is coming is emanating from the carriers themselves.
Industry consultants SeaBoard Group says wireless data rates have dropped substantially in Canada recently in advance of the presumed iPhone launch – a device that is all about delivering data (with massive multimedia capabilities) to its users.
Over the past year, says the Seaboard report, “there have been breathtaking changes to wireless/mobile data plans.”
The options available in now bear little resemblance to the options available even in May, back when Seaboard said Canada’s wireless carriers should be embarrassed that penetration here is less than some third world countries.
The current data trends are certainly favourable to users. “Canadians are getting more for much less,” says the Seaboard release, quoting the paper which compares some unlimited data plans in the U.S. and some European markets with Canadian plans where the ‘unlimited’ option does not exist.
“Data rates in Canada have plummeted in recent months. It is now far more affordable to be a data user in Canada than it was as recently as this past June,” wrote the Seaboard folks.
“Are there other places where you can get even better deals? Yes. The U.S. offers better plans for better rates, and some of the Euro plans, especially in the wake of re-pricing due to the introduction of the iPhone, are far more attractive than data options available to Canadians. But if it is any consolation, Canadian rates are closer to the U.S. and Euro plans now, than they were earlier this year, by a factor of up to 25x.”
All that said, it’s still only November 16th as of this writing, so we’d bet Rogers has some sort of sales or “reserve yours now” marketing campaign – whether they have iPhones or not – in advance of this Christmas.
It would be such a slam-dunk moneymaker for both the big red machine and for the fruit company, that neither side can afford to wait much longer to bring one of the most anticipated consumer electronics devices in history to Canada.
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