“DigitalJournal.com has learned from an inside source at Holt Renfrew that the luxury retailer will have the iPhone in about two weeks,” Christopher Hogg reports for Digital Journal.
“We have to say this is still in rumour phase, as Holt Renfrew’s publicity department would not confirm it with DigitalJournal.com. However, the source inside Holt Renfrew was adamant the phone would be arriving shortly, after speaking with the retailer’s buyers,” Hogg reports.
“The Holt Renfrew source says the 8GB phone will be a GSM phone, retailing across the country for $799. Anyone familiar with the GSM market in Canada knows that Rogers is the leading GSM provider in the country… A Rogers customer service employee let news slip the company would have the iPhone exclusively in Canada back in January, which the company retracted a week later,” Hogg reports.
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “John B.” for the heads up.]
MacDailyNews Note: Holt Renfrew is a chain of high-end Canadian department stores which currently comprises nine stores, located in the cities of Calgary, Edmonton, Montreal, Ottawa, Quebec City, Toronto, and Vancouver.
$799 cdn? Really? The Canadian dollar must have had a really bad day yesterday.
Need I say more?
No kidding! For once, the price should be cheaper up in the great white north than below the 49th.
Holt Renfrew. “Canada’s leading fashion store for men and women.”
$799.
I don’t think so.
Actually the CDN dollar has passed the US and will continue to do so as the US falls deeper into recession. It’s just high end stores trying to rip people off.
shoot, i just bought an iPod touch. Rogers sucks
If they reallly wanted to make the story real, they would have kept the same positioned pricing to the US.
$799 means this story is purely a load of $%&.
As much as we want to believe this, don’t buy it. As well, Apple always pads an announcement for a new product like the iPhone in a new country with over a month of stocking time.
While I have heard through various contacts that an announcement was due late Sep/early Oct, it would simply be an announcement with a late Nov launch at the earliest. Rogers/Bell/Telus all have their own stores, FutureShop/BestBuy sell Apple – so bet that Holt isn’t going to be the point of first launch – at least on its own. And it will be far less than $799 unless it also has 3G and a little doodad built in to scratch my back and fetch me a coffee.
is Apple stupid?
the Canadian dollar is the same as the US. and they still treat us as second class. Compare the 2 online stores (CA and US).
they should wake up and read the market.
We want an Apple store in Calgary. all Apple dealers here suck.
Absolutely ridiculous. Apple would never launch a product in Canada without an announcement. Plus, the phone would most likely be sold only at Apple and Rogers retails stores. Add to that the current exchange rate, and you know this story is bogus. The Canadian dollar is still slightly above par, so why the hell would the phone cost DOUBLE what it costs in the States?
Holt’s is a place where you buy a $30 belt for $150.
The data plans offered by Rogers (“Robbers”) will be hundreds per month, making this a status item for the narcissistic glitterati-wannabees. You know, the type who goes to Holt’s to pay $150 for a $30 belt.
Prediction: Leah McLaren and Rebecca Eckler will be early adopters.
MW = “about” — aboot, eh?
This is obviously pure bull…First off, the EDGE charges in Canada are still prohibitive (remember the article a few months back about how much a package similiar to the lowest iPhone rate would cost with Rogers? Something like $250, and it would still be limited to something like 100 MB). Hell, Rogers doesn’t even offer an unlimited monthly subscription to their shared wireless Hotspot access…($25/month for 600 minutes if you have a Rogers wireless account, compared to $25/month for unlimited access with Bell Mobility accounts at the same HotSpots…that’s just for WiFi access, folks) If Holt Renfrew is charging $800 per phone, they’d have to be previously unlocked (we all know about those traps this week, eh?); and it would still be a ridiculous ripoff…The 16GB iPod Touch is retailing for $449 here (compared to $399 with the lower US dollar)…No way this rumour is true…NO WAY.
Everyone calm down. This story is bogus.
Unfortunately, Canada won’t get the iPhone for a loooooong time. There just isn’t enough competition in the Canadian cellphone industry.
If they set the price that high here people are just going to cross the border into detriot, buffalo or boston and pick one up there with Cdn dollars at par.
I can’t see them charging that much. The 16gig Touch is only 49 dollars more than then american price and it has the sameprice as the 8gig iPhone so I can’t see them going above 449. Canadian apple stores would just cry foul as they lost so many customers to cross border shoppers.
Blame Canada, ah, I mean USA.
Apple isn’t the only company taking advantage of the high Canadian dollar. Most products available in Canada are still approximately 30% more then in the US. Probably due to retail lag and distribution systems.
Altho, yes, the $799 price for the iPhone in Canada does indicate this rumour is bogus.
While the second best Mac store in Calgary is a Camera store and the third best is a Drug store chain, there is still one good Mac store in Calgary.
An official Apple Store would probably kill off the best store. It’s the only one that offers the same services as an Apple store.
I call BS. First off, Holt Renfrew will NOT be a launch store. Second, no way it’s going to be $799 when the iPod touch 16GB, which is the same price as the iPhone in the US is $449.
I wish this were true, but I call serious stinky BS on this one.
I’m Canadian (and I work for Rogers but not the Wireless side) and this sounds a bit suspicious.
I find it a totally hard to believe that Holt Renfrew would be carrying the iPhone. It’s not their market. They’re a high end fashion store not an electronics provider. If anyone would be announcing something it would be Rogers, the wireless provider.
And that price!!! Our dollar is at parity, there’s no need for that much of a mark-up.
@michaelg,
i agree with you. take Amazon.ca for instance. i wanted to buy a book from Amazon.ca and it was CAD$99. with all the news about the CAD$ parity with US$, i checked out Amazon.com for the same book and it was US$60. that’s just not right. specially when you know that they ship the book from the US anyway!! duh.
The US companies are just playing deaf ears regarding this.. where is the Canadian consumer protection?
Gosh, but you must be an internationally renowned economist–or psychic–because no one on this side of the Great White North has reported a recession in our economy.
There are predictions of one, of course, thanks to our letting dumbasses with absolutely no sense of what it takes to sustain home ownership move into that market, but it hasn’t begun YET. Next time we’ll require actual QUALIFICATION to purchase a home, for (clearly) that part of the American dream is NOT for everyone. (Never was.)
Is your observation mere wishful thinking, Canuck?
Hello? Our dollar is at parity. If Rogers thinks they can screw us for an extra 300 for the “it” phone, they will get the crap kicked out of them. Unless they are going to give us free data plans.
all u guys are serious idiots…how can any company price a product depending on the exchange rate for the day? wtf is wrong with u ppl? just because the value of canadian is a bit more than the dollar now doesnt mean that product prices need to be cut down. think about it…do u walk into a coffee shop knowing that ur coffee costs $5 but since the dollar value is down, they should mark it down at $3? wtf? get real ppl. the market value will change but not everyday. geez!
Look, if the Canadian dollar is worth the same as the American dollar, then the USA is in a recession and the American dollar is dropping like a stone.
American economists can’t understand why the price of oil keeps going up when there is a good supply. The oil price is not going up, the dollar is dropping. Foreign investors are pulling out of the American market like rats from a sinking ship.
@VeriZune
but they would do it if it was the opposite. what a freak!!
and the CAD$ vs US$ was hovering around 1.1:1 for a long time.
Even a capitalist would be publicly humiliated if that was the real price. If it is the real price, with NAFTA agreements and all, ….may I suggest a ‘brown Zune’ colored shoe polish attack on all rogers employees!
Shake the salespersons hand, and then slime them with shoe polish. Nothing like a good public ridicule campaign! How to get media coverage in a public gouging corporation.
Based on cell phone plans in Canada we could probably start the shoe polish campaign now!
Someone mentioned a good mac store in Calgary.
You mean the lazy non marketing non aggressive passive marketers at ____ or at _______?
I hope a real Apple store comes to town. I have not received so much as a mailer on Apple products in the last 5 years. They suck at marketing and are enjoying Apple’s efforts without so much as a brochure in the mail. Apple’s greatest marketing run and they can’t bother to do a mailout.
If you buy a Mac, they give you some classroom instruction. Isn’t that great…thanks a bunch!
I would love to see them carry average products and have to compete. If I were Apple Corp, I would pull the franchise rights the day the new store is built.
What goes around comes around.
Rumour: Deerfoot Meadows with the Ferrari and Lambo dealerships
Wow, so a rogers iphone? I’ll pass.
People that shop at Holt Renfrew have a lot of $ to throw around so why not target a premium demographic with a premium product?
Yes, Holt doesn’t sell electronics but Apple can set up their own booth with their own staff to sell the iPhone just like Best Buy has an Apple store-within-a-store in the USA. I’m quite sure that Holt was selling a specific high-end, ‘fashion’ lineup of Nokia phones in the past.
$799. You can get a laptop for less than that! Let me know when it goes below $400.
to A good mac store in Calgary
You’d think Calgary would have been one of the first locations Apple would have opened a store. It’s one of the richest cities in all of North America.
Again, Canadians are being screwed up. The Canadian dollar is worth more than the US dollare now. Why pay double de price.
Rogers can put up the phone where I think…
the best Apple store in Calgary is http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/canadastore/
no reason to buy from the snobs at MMD since they didn’t seem to want my business anyway, any of the times i came in
@A good mac store in Calgary
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I agree with you. usually I do know waaaaay more than the sales person.
One day i was at LD and somebody wanted to buy a Mighty mouse but the sales guy told him not to buy because it won’t work on Windows!!! i had to disagree with him. the sales guy hated me
@BluMeNe
I hate MMD. the guys are $#%&*. my ex gf will never go there as well.
anyway. I hope Apple store opes here soon.
I emailed Apple to ask why the .Mac account is $99USD but still priced at $139CAD, they responded that the price of a .Mac account is not tied to currency exchange.
Go figure.
Another aspect of Canadian distributors screwing us over. A new Corvette is $25,000 cheaper in the US than in Canada!!!! Bastards!
If they think I’m going to pay double for an iPhone, they gotto give their heads a shake.
On the other hand, I reckon this story might be a load of rubbish. We’ll see.
My two bits (CDN)
Holt is waaay high end, but successful apparently there are people out there willing to pay $600 for a pair of jeans, so those people would likely pay $800 for the phone, Rogers have no interest in discounting their data plans and the scuttlebutt is Apple won’t sell the phone without a competitive data plan. Given Apples recent price reduction for the iPhone They are looking for high volume sales not a niche market. As Canadians we have always paid more for Apple products and the Apple line was ‘because of the exchange rate’ now with the dollar at par the line has changed but essentially the still want to screw us but, I have doubts that they would screw us that much
I can go over to Detroit and get 2 lap dances and a happy ending for the price of 1 lap dance in Canada. I love the land of the brave.
@dotmac…
I have the same questions. I called every apple 1800 number there was and couldnt get an answer. Why can’t I buy a US copy of it as it is a product in cyber space. Next time I go to the US, I am picking up a copy.
WTF
As a Canadian, I am astounded at the huge price difference between Apple.ca and Apple.com But on the other-hand, I’m finally getting my MacBook Pro when Leopard arrives. I could pay the $2967 (tax included) for it new here, or buy it on Apple.com refurbished for $2199. Given the dollar’s at par[ish], I’m saving $768. Yippee!
Aside from this article which sounds like a pretty weak rumor at best, I’m surprised at the number of Calgary residents reading MDN
The location at Chinook Mall which was rumored to be an Apple store became a lousy Sephora shop, but hopefully one day we’ll be able to walk into an Apple store in Calgary and buy an iPhone. I wish I knew when, but I’ll be in the line up for the openning…..
Vancouver does not have an Apple store either, and West Ed Mall would be another logical choice as well.
j
This is some idiot at Holt’s trying to get publicity. I know the person who owns the iPhone trademark, and they would have had to work something out with them…and negotiate a revenue sharing agreement with Rogers…and I think Apple is demanding unlimited plans with the phone so I think it will be next year at best. We’re the poor cousin, Apple is focused on Europe and Asia first, not our measly 30 million population..
Although I tend to agree with everyone else that its probably BS that Holt’s will be carrying the iPhone, they did/do sell the Vertu <www.vertu.com> cellphones. Some of them were priced as high as $15,000 with diamonds, sapphire crystal, leather accents, and exotic metals.
it’s really true… Googled a few minutes ago…
1 U.S. dollar = 0.996699927 Canadian dollars
It’s really hard to believe. Then again… Bush did #($)*&!@ everything.
Whatever – I love Canada… I’ll be moving there when I graduate!
Do any of the Canadian readers know if there is a relationship between Rodgers and AT&T;? If I go to Canada will I ‘roam’ on Rodgers and vice-versa? Will it have a Rodgers Sim chip?
If they are somehow not locked, I would say that many of our Canadian friends should come down to the States and buy a phone here and save a bundle, considering that the Canadian Dollar is a bit more than par to with the US Dollar right now. Especially those Canadians in Vancouver. You can buy a one at the Bellingham AT&T;Store or even at the local (not corporate) Apple Store. Only about an hour south of Vancouver (depending on Border lineups).
Fer cryin out loud people. Holt sells frikken clothes. Rogers wireless sells phones. I know their top manager in Montreal and he says that they will sell iPhones but not in the near future. He doubts even before christmas. At $799 too? Only the most gullible would believe that.
To all those people in Calgary without a Mac store…we have one and are getting a second. That is because Steven Harper uses a PC….hahaha nyah nyah suffer suckers……. (just kidding)
The price is crazy….unless the phone is unlocked. Since Rogers is not indicating in anyway they have a deal with Apple this is the only possibility that makes sense. Likely just a load of bull.
BTW Rogers does have a high volume data plan now for a price that would work for the iPhone. Wonder why that is???
What hi-volume data plan? have a link?
No established retailer can offer to sell an “unlocked” iPhone. Apple would shut them down within hours. When it does come to Canada, Rogers is the only company that can sell it for 2 reasons 1) only provider to use sim cards 2) only provider rich enough to pay what Apple wants in revenues for the iPhone.
Holt Renfrew? the guy who started that rumor is still laughing.