Chris Blackwell’s Domain

Apple today officially announced the iPhone will launch later this month in Canada on the Rogers Wireless network. This comes as some surprising news, as we reported earlier that the iPhone was not due to launch in Canada until September 8. Apple has announced that the 16GB iPhone will be available for $499 with a 3-year contract. The data rate plans are said to be along the same lines as the AT&T plans that are currently offered with the iPhone. Sorry to everyone out there who is currently giving their hopes up. Hope you all have a good April Fools Day!

Andy Walker from Cyberwalker.com seems to have the inside scoop on the iPhone coming to Canada this September. Andy’s source claims that the iPhone will launch in Canada on September 8 with Rogers Wireless. The post also hints that new data plans will be coming with the iPhone that are more along the lines of the data plan rates that are currently available in the US. This will be great for both iPhone fans and anyone else who currently has a data plan with Rogers.

My frustrations with the iPhone continue, or more so, lack there of here in Canada. Today I received a call from a friend who wanted to buy their son an iPhone for Christmas. This person was not technology savvy but they clearly were attracted to the idea that their son would not have to carry around a mobile phone or an iPod, that they could have both in a single device. Alas, I had to inform them that there was no iPhone currently in Canada and no plans have been announced of it yet that it’s coming soon. My friend couldn’t understand why this was? Here was a device that was so clearly wanted by the public, but not coming to Canada?

Since I’ve been following the iPhone in Canada news for almost a year now I guess I got to rapped up in the idea that it wasn’t coming because only a few select geeks wanted it to. Now I’m starting to see that is clearly not the case? So why is there no iPhone in Canada? Well we all know that Rogers would be the only provider it could be with since it’s the only GSM provider in Canada. There has been speculation that Rogers doesn’t want the iPhone or care that much about it, but I just don’t believe that to be true. The iPhone would be a huge increase to Rogers sales so I’m sure they would love to have it with their selection.

So what is the real reason for no iPhone in Canada? I have to believe it all comes down to data plans. The iPhone is all about surfing the web, checking email, sending photos, etc. all like you would on a regular desktop computer or laptop. This however requires a lot of data being sent back and forth. Rogers (or any provider in Canada) doesn’t have any data plans to remotely cover the iPhone requirements. So essentially the iPhone’s features are essentially dumbed down when data is turned off. Now Apple could launch the iPhone in Canada with only selected features available, but that is not Apple’s style. Without a 100% functional iPhone, they would not allow it to be sold or it could hurt their image of “everything just works” and “everything works together”. So sad to say to my friend, this year you’ll have to buy him a Blackberry and an iPod Touch, and together you may have half the features of an iPhone.