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iPhone Woes [Updated]

July 4th, 2008

If you’ve been reading any of my posts over the past year you may notice that I have an affinity for Apple’s very cool, yet overpriced devices. Like my iPods before it, the iPhone is no different. Like many other Canadians, I have patiently waited for the past year for the killer device to arrive here in the “Great White North”. In June Steve Jobs finally announced that we (Canada) would get the iPhone along with 22 other countries this July 11th.

Suffice it to say I was a little excited. I saw the device as a great productivity tool for our company, allowing us to: take meeting notes, display page proofs of designs on the go, have full email capabilities on the road,  show video work to clients anywhere… you name it. But – and we all saw it coming – Rogers, the only Canadian carrier to sell the iPhone, announced their rate plans and my dream of the affordable iPhone business tool left as quickly as it came.

As a small business owner who sees the potential the iPhone could bring to our business, I was disappointed to see there is no unlimited data plan, or even a plan that was reasonably priced. With the current rate structure, if I happened to download 1extra gigabyte  in a month (which is quite possible as a web developer), it could cost me an extra $312 a month!! So, no, we aren’t happy with that thought.

Apparently I’m not alone. The site Ruined iPhone has collected over 30,000 signatures of people who feel Rogers has taken advantage of their monopoly as the only carrier in Canada to have both the exclusive contract with Apple as well as a 3G network that will support the iPhone 3G’s speed increases. What good is speed without unlimited data? Especially if you run a small business! Not only are the plans inadequate for most users, but Rogers has offered plans that are by far the most expensive plans to date among all countries supporting the iPhone.

So far the story has gotten lots of press time with both the major news agencies & small online blogs pouncing on the story. One blog has even gone so far as to say that if the signatures collected by Ruined iPhone translated into minimum lost sales, it could mean upwards of 16 million dollars lost for Rogers. Will they sit up and take notice? Probably not, but only time will tell.

In the mean time, I’m thinking we’ll keep our Aliant cellphones and look at an iPod Touch for the other iPhone capabilities. Then again, with the copyright law changes coming, even using half the capabilities on the devices might be soon deemed illegal, so It’s an interesting time to be in technology for sure!

For more information on the iPhone 3G and its Canadian details, check out www.iphoneincanada.ca.

UPDATE – July 18th 2008: It seems Rogers listened… to a point anyway. With over 60,000 signatures on the petition, Rogers offered a 6GB a month data plan for $30 which would make a base plan be aprox $70 a month. Still to rich for my blood we went ahead and bought iPod touches for or developers to test with instead.

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Posted in General News on July 4th, 2008

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