The other wireless carriers have very quickly jumped on the opportunity that Rogers created for them and are offering unlimited plans for their top phones. These phones are also less for initial purchase than the iPhone.
If Rogers doesn’t pull a rabbit out of their hat in the next couple of days, don’t expect great iPhone sales numbers out of Canada. Then again, that’s not a bad thing. If Canadian sales are low and the rest of the world has sales that are through the roof, maybe Rogers will notice. The media will notice for sure.
Sleepygeek, thanks for sharing this. Just as a pre-emptive defence (there’s a new term for you), I know the temptation to take tech rumours with a grain of salt is high, and especially Apple rumours. But I can assure you that something is definitely going on here. Check out the rest of my blog if you doubt my editorial integrity- I’m not the type to splog or linkbait. I just had to publish such a juicy piece of news!
Now as I said in the article, this could be something as simple as a shipping or production delay that’s been blown out of proportion. I haven’t ruled that out. But thousands of part-time hired-for-iPhone staffers have definitely been let go (My source is a Rogers Wireless store manager.) Something’s definitely up, whether it is indeed an Apple power play is up for debate.
[quote author=“smithereensblog”]
Now as I said in the article, this could be something as simple as a shipping or production delay that’s been blown out of proportion.
Welcome to the AFB Dan. Nice blog!
I sure hope AAPL does not run out of 3g iphones the first month. It is completely expected that the carriers may run out. But not AAPL!
Thanks SG. This is credible and hopefully true. I am still shaking my head trying to understand why Apple would do business with these mountebanks. I will never, ever, buy any product whereby Rogers profits. I hope Canadians boycott this company as this pricing gouge is just the most recent example of their predatory practices
edit: Thank you also Dan and welcome to AFB. Great first post and hope we hear more from you
Apple not happy with Rogers over iPhone plan pricing?
We?ve heard through the grapevine that Apple isn?t pleased with Rogers right now, due to their insanely high iPhone data prices. This isn?t 100% confirmed at the moment, but here?s what is rumored to have happened:
* Rogers hired additional sales staff to handle the iPhone launch, all of whom have been fired effective immediately
* Apple has informed Rogers that they will be diverting a ?large percentage? of their iPhone stock that was destined for Canadian shores, sending it instead to their European distributors. According to the rumor, this would leave Rogers with as few as 10-20 units per store for launch day.
The consumer backlash against Roger?s data rates was understandable, but we?re honestly a bit shocked to see Apple reacting in a similar fashion. Cupertino is doing one of two things here: they?re either attempting to strong-arm Rogers into lowering their data tariffs and making the iPhone more accessible to average consumers, or they really have simply given up and are abandoning the Canadian market in favor of a European market that seems a bit more eager to, uh, allow people to purchase an iPhone without mortgaging their Moose farm. Let?s hope, for the sake of our Canadian friends up North, that Apple is simply trying to affect some change, and that Rogers will be forced to comply by next Friday. Any more takers for the Rogers petition?
I have a hard time to beleive that one week before launch Apple would send Canadian iPhone to Europe.
Just pacakging wise there is law in each country about what should be in the package (approval from each country regulator agency for example or language inside the package) So I doubt that They will just ship to Europe some iPhone already package for Canada
I would say that either this would have happen way before today , or they haven’t been ship/package yet…
The only way to put pressure on Rogers is either don’t buy or if possible put only a voice plan on it and use wifi….
This all makes for a nice story. I’ve yet to hear a Canadian member speak highly (or even express satisfaction) about the quality of service or product pricing from Rogers.
Please forgive my ignorance. In looking at population densities in Canada, it appears much of the population is concentrated in the southern latitudes, near the US border. In other words, the geographic coverage of the population is skewed heavily in relatively small geographic areas. Does Rogers have a legislated monopoly for cell coverage in Canada? I’m assuming there’s a regulatory reason why competitors have not entered what is potentially a lucrative market for cell services in and around the nation’s cloistered population centers.
Short version: If you use an application or browse a website that we don’t include, it’s 5 cents per Kilobyte. Yes. Kilobyte. As in 1024 nickels in a megabyte: $50/MB.
Rogers is actually proud to announce they’ve reduced the cost to $15/MB if you download less than 5 MB, or 20 cents per Meg if you download more than 20MB (does that make any sense?) And hey, iPhone users get the wonderful rate of 50cents per MB if they exceed their data plan, then 3 cens per MB after the first 60 overage.
The $50/MB plan, however, remains for anyone who doesn’t have a data plan.
