I stopped by the new Vancouver Apple store on my way to work to hang out with John Biehler and watch a bit of Steve Job’s keynote. Obviously the question on everyones’ mind basically revolved around the 3G iPhone that was rumoured to be announced.
The good news is that the release date for the iPhone in Canada has been officially set for July 11th. The bad news is that not only is the jury is still out on just what type of data plans Rogers and Fido are going to be offering with the plan, but also most of the Rogers and Fido people seem completely clueless about the offerings.
The first comment I have to make is that the new price for the 3G iPhone is $199, which is significantly less than I paid for my iPod touch. The rumours in the last couple of days alluded to the fact that Apple is going to allow carrier subsidies for the phones, so based on the announced price point, I’m going to conclude that you can only get it that cheap if you choose to lock into a 2-3yr contract with Rogers. In fact, some of Rogers current data plans require a contract, so it’s looking fairly likely that new 3G iPhone users in Canada will be forced to get a contract. I hope that’s not the case, but we’ll see.
In addition, based on a screenshot John took of Apple’s new 3G website portion, it looks like you can only pick up the phone in a Rogers or Fido outlet (i.e. not online or at the Apple store), which basically adds weight to my belief that it will be available on a contract basis only. I’ve been screwed over by contracts a few times already, and I really don’t want to lock into a new contract going forward. That’s not to say Rogers won’t offer a $600 version without a contract, but right now I’m guessing they’re going to try to force everyone to lock in.
Also, there’s still no word from Rogers or Fido on the data plans they are going to provide. I’m more convinced now that the plans aren’t going to be very affordable (based on Rogers current monopoly and the obvious demand for this product), which is obviously going to be a huge bummer for everyone wanting a new iPhone.
Photo by John Biehler
How do you get ‘screwed’ over by a contract? Isn’t a contract a contract? Or is it a case where their service sucks and you need to get out of the contract?
And in this day and age, even if you have to leave Rogers, its not like you have anyone else to go to (Fido, which is still Rogers) to use your iPhone.
Yah, basically the service sucks and the only way to get out is to break it. In the old days breaking a contract cost $100, regardless of how much time was left. Now it’s like $250 or your base fee multiplied by how many months left you have in your contract, whichever is more.
if you do not need one specifically for work or scheduling what not, don’t bother buying one. If we keep trying to be cool and keep up with the trends the price will always be high. Like gas, you pay still, why lower the price? Better idea to impress the ladies is buy em a piece of jewelry. bring back the old brick phone. Save yourself some money. So I ask you Duane, do you NEED one? Are you ever more than a few feet from your computer anyhow? Let it go man let it go. With your track record you will probably leave it in a bar downtown and some guy will be laughing with his friends how he was ‘given’ a free iphone. Go ING Direct, save you money.
[…] will be available on July 11th through Rogers here in Canada. You can read more information on Duane’s and John’s […]
Hey, don’t you upgrade your Ford truck every year? 🙂 You’re probably right. But I still want one!
Although Rogers now has a press release saying it will be a 3yr plan, they probably don’t have to lock you in with the phone, as they basically can lock you in with an iPhone data plan.
It’s unnerving that Rogers just upped the data plan costs.
I dislike to think of the iPhone being locked to the Rogers network, and fear any Rogers branding on the phone. Maybe this will also be the end of Fido’s *slight* independence — for the iPhone I expect every detail to be the same with both Fido and Rogers.
Fido has an unlimited data plan for $7/month or $20/month for a package. It works on an unlocked iphone with a monthly package.
@stefan Fido’s plan is definitely not for the iPhone and if you’ve been using one on it, you’ll be in for a nice surprise next billing cycle since they are tracking your IMEI. All their plan details say it must be a phone from them for the service to work and even then, it’s still limited since you probably can’t go to Youtube or Google Maps without incurring additional data charges
@Lloyd I don’t see Rogers or Fido branding the iPhone….Apple wouldn’t let them and hasn’t let any other country do it…can’t believe Canada would be the first to win that battle.
I really hope Rogers will reduce the data plan cost. My company deals with cellular data. I have pumped like 5-10G of data on one single day of testing… hard to imagine how much the company’s paying for that.
It’d be really nice if we can buy iPhone separately and just plug in a voice only SIM and get the data plan later if needed. You can probably get away without a data plan if you’re in wifi range most of the time.
Oh and Fido’s “unlimited plan” isn’t really unlimited.
I really REALLY hope they offer an unlimited data plan.
I don’t call people THAT much before evening and weekend times, and I don’t text a lot.. so if they had plans like AT&T does for iPhones I’d be VERY happy.
I am seriously willing to pay about $100 a month for unlimited data. Right now the prices are just INSANE.