The iPhone is finally coming to Canada but nobody is cheering – in comparison to their US friends over the border on an AT&T price plan, incumbent telecoms operator Rogers is not offering an unlimited data option and is tying customers into a three(!)-year contract that will cost roughly the same as AT&T’s but offer about half the talk and text bundle.
Angry Canadians do not mess aboot: a new site, RuinedIphone.com has sprung up protesting the unfair conditions and has already achieved 44,223 signatures from people saying no to the Rogers price plan to be launched this Friday.
This negative publicity surrounding the Canadian launch of the iPhone is rumoured to be having a knock-on effect and souring the Apple/Rogers relationship.
According to Canadian journalist, Daniel Smith, on his blog Smithereens a senior Rogers representative told a source of Smith’s that Apple is taking a “large percentage” of 3G iPhone’s originally destined for Canada and diverting this to the European market, possibly due to the backlash over Rogers’ price plan.
Added to this, Smith reports that, according to this same source, the 44,000-plus signatories protesting the price of the 3G iPhone is “greater than the number of units originally planned for Apple’s first 3G shipment to Rogers.”
Bad news for Canada, while the UK is whipping itself into a frenzy before the 3G handset goes on sale this Friday morning. Already O2 UK has run out of stock to supply the demand of pre-order iPhones.
Meanwhile, here in Ireland, CEO of Cubic Telecom and Twitterfone investor, Pat Phelan, http://patphelan.net asks why there appears to be a distinct lack of frenzied anticipation in the run up to Friday.
“I have been running surveys among friends and can only seem to find a tiny (sub 2pc) group of people who are buying the new 3G iPhone in Ireland,” he said in a blog post.
“It may be down to the fact that we have one of the worst packages on the planet with the iPhone or maybe that O2 just haven’t engaged with the customers but I think it may be due to the fact that the first launch didn’t exactly get out the door successfully and people aren’t seeing the iPhone in the ‘real world’,” he concludes.
By Marie Boran
