So there’s been a lot of talk on twitter and other blogs about the iPhone finally coming to Canada via Rogers. At least in an official sense. Lots of people already have the iPhone in Canada, but they miss out on some of the enhanced features that the AT&T subscribers down south have (along with data plan etc).
I’m indifferent on my feeling towards the announcement. It’s cool yeah, I’ve had requests from non-techies asking me “where do I get one?!” of which my reply is to direct them towards a $500 unlocked phone in the U.S. Some say that the iPhone in the U.S. is in part responsible for the data rates becoming affordable, I wonder if the same will hold true in Canada? I would think Apple wants us to believe that because it all goes towards a positive reflection on their brand.
The fact is, HTC and Bell have already beaten them to the punch but I don’t think their marketing to date has been successful. I currently have an HTC Touch from Bell on a $7/mth unlimited data plan and am loving it. Web, gmail, twitter, google maps, texting, camera.. it’s got it all. However, It seems as though I’m the only person in my town that knows about it! My only beef is they charge me roaming data when I travel to Vancouver. I suppose they gotta mess with you one way or another. 
In any case, I don’t think I’ll be switching just for the sake of having one. Monthly data rates mean more to me than saying “I have an iPhone”. So dear Telus and Rogers: I’ll consider switching if you change your pricing, $15/MB is ridiculous. It’s not just about having an iPhone, the monthly costs have to be justifiable as well. </rant>
I look forward to the day where data rates are no longer the dealbreaker. Just like broadband cable did back in the day. Wow, was that only last decade?
Welcome to the backwards world of technology, it is amazing how differently countries are treated. Why is it that Canada (due north of the US) has to wait so long to get the iPhone with the reasonable data rates?
I for one am not going to buy an iPhone, in fact I have canceled my cell phone and am happier to have done so. People are always asking “How do you live without a cell phone?” easy I have a home and office phone
. We did not “NEED” cell phones up until 5 years ago, now everyone and their monkey has to have one 
.
Maybe I should just become a Hutterite
I recently signed a longterm contract (yeah, stupid I know) w/ Fido — W. & I were under pressure, we thought we really needed to get this new phone *now,* and so locked in with a 3-year agreement. It’s some sort of KRZR or something.
Anyway, I also signed up for an unlimited data plan at $7 p/month (one of the perks of signing up for 3 years), and it seems to work ok *except* for when I want to surf to places that Fido doesn’t let me (WAP browser). However, I can download applications such as gmail and Airset.com (much better calendar IMO than Google Calendar) and go to those sites no problem (can’t get to airset through the Fido browser, though). Interestingly, W. can’t download anything on his phone, which is with Telus. They won’t let him download external or Java enabled stuff, even though the phone of course could handle it easily.
Meanwhile, because the Canadian plans are so …weird, I’m wondering what my 2nd bill will look like. Will those applications be included in the “unlimited” plan? I hadn’t downloaded any of them in time for the first bill, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed it won’t make a difference.
As for “unlimited,” aside from locking me into its WAP browser (which means I’m effectively hobbled regarding where I can go), here’s another (Canadian?) anomaly: while I pay nothing to receive text messages (from FB, eg. — haven’t set up Twitter on mobile), I would have to pay quite a lot to *send* any messages. Isn’t that crazy?
So, yeah, you’re totally right: it’s not just the phone (shiny shiny), it’s the data plan. If anything, it’s ALL about the data plan.
AFAIC, the iPhone is useless without an affordable plan. You’d be better off getting a Touch iPod and hacking it to work with Skype…
@Mark – the only thing I’m currently missing on my iPhone that I’m using on Rogers in Canada is visual voicemail and a non-obscene data plan. I don’t get that much voicemail that it’s a big loss but it is a nice feature and I’ve used it in the US with my AT&T plan previously. The data plan is really the only thing missing in Canada at this point. Are you able to tether your touch to a laptop? How much data you do consume on your HTC? I’m curious what you go through a month for $7. I’ve read in the US that the average iPhone user goes through less than a gig a month. I’d pay $20 a month for that – even capped – on Rogers…currently you can get a gig for $65 if you order the PC Card plan and get an understanding CSR that will give it to you – still too much.
@Yule – the iPhone is far from useless without a data plan. For about $100 more than a touch (or less depending on how many gigs you get), you get the benefit of a camera, bluetooth (currently limited to just headsets), a speaker and a microphone. Skype will never work on an iPod Touch without an addon since there is no mic or bluetooth on the Touch. Skype is already available via a 3rd party app (Fring) for the iPhone.
@John I can tether my laptop but I don’t because then Bell’s version of the obscene data plan kicks in (that’s where the unlimited isn’t really unlimited). I would obviously use it a lot if I could tether and maintain the $7 rate.
Honestly, I have no idea what my usage is. The bills I get from Bell usually say around 5MB, which is pretty hard to believe – firing up google maps usually eats up about 500k in one go and hitting my homepage is about 250k. I’m sure I do a lot more than visit gmaps a few times and a couple websites.
I’m not complaining because I don’t have to worry about it.
I’d pay $20/mth for a GB as well, I’d definitely put myself in the < 1GB usage class given what I do and what I want out of it.
@Mark Yeah, I wasn’t sure if Bell had limits on the ‘unlimited’ plan for things like tethering.
When I was in the US on vacation (hanging around Apple HQ with a buddy) shortly after the iPhone came out, I blew through about 175mb in a couple of days. Mind you that was because I was on vacation, had an unlimited data plan and was taking a ton of pictures with the iPhone and uploading them to Flickr on the spot. I think my actual (not on vacation/shiny new toy) usage would be well within the 1gb range per month…although I could see if you were a YouTube fan (I’m not), you could conceivably blow through much more.
The good thing is this will only be good for consumers in Canada with more competition in the data arena. At least we have number portability now too.
@John Impressive! I’m not much of a YouTube fan either, I certainly don’t go there just to search stuff out (read: time waste). I think occasional radio streaming, photo uploads, and the usual mail/web/chat/personal updates is about all I need which doesn’t take much.
I sure hope so, and yes number portability was a long time coming!