“Blogger Daniel Smith claims multiple sources, including a senior Rogers representative, claim that Apple has diverted a significant amount of its initial iPhone 3G Canadian deliveries to Europe in retribution for the carrier’s steep rate plans, which at similar prices offer a third fewer minutes and limited data compared to AT&T,” Malley reports.
“Stores may be getting just 10 to 20 iPhones each and are being told to “exercise caution” not to promise ample stock on launch day, according to the rumors,” Malley reports.
More in the full article here.
In an editorial, The Vancouver Sun reports, “The pricing regime announced by Rogers last month reflects its monopoly position for a premium product. Potential purchasers are particularly upset by the pricing Rogers announced for data usage, which is a big factor for anyone wanting to take advantage of a device that is more computer than phone.”
“While AT&T customers in the U.S. can get unlimited data with a plan starting at $70 a month, the most Rogers offers before extra costs start to mount is two gigabytes with a plan that starts at $115 a month. Potential users tech-savvy enough to know what two gigabytes represents know it won’t be enough for serious websurfing. Irate consumers have used the Internet to launch a petition, attracting more than 30,000 virtual signatures at this writing, to protest Rogers’ pricing for the iPhone, which will be available July 11,” The Vancouver Sun reports.
The Vancouver Sun advises, “If you don’t like the price of an iPhone, don’t buy it… If Rogers finds it has priced itself out of the market, it won’t take a petition to ring in lower prices.”
Full article here.
Apple should pull the iPhone from Rogers immediately. Apple customers are being treated unfairly and forced to pay obscene rates that have no justification, and do not fit with the the way the iPhone was meant to be used. Under Rogers’ pricing regime, it is a crippled device.
I am one Canadian who won’t buy this Apple product.
Yeaup… wanted one (desperately), but am holding off to see what happens.
Rogers = suck
Like Microsoft, a monopoly can wreak havoc. Why do they piss off their customers? Because they can…..
Spank them hard!
Same is happening here in Finland too…
Sonera includes only 100MB/31,69€, 250MB/51,49 or “large” 1000MB/89,99 per month.
Those include 100 minutes/100 SMS or 250/250 and 1000/1000 respectively. One minute costs 0,079€ and one extra MB is whopping 1,49€!
They really suck!
Notice that the “large” is less than 2GB what the Rogers have!
I have to agree with the Vancouver Sun on this one.
Rogers are like Canada – nice on the surface, corrupt and deceitful underneath.
Its the frickin British class-system shit that still exists here.
Here in BC, we would be better off forming a country with Washington, Oregon and California – we have nothing in common with those weird 1950’s types back East.
In the UK, iPhones sell out – here in Canada, I havent even seen an advert for them.
Its like we are living in Zimbabwe or something.
Apple is limiting shipments of iPhones to Canada not to punish Rogers, but because Apple realizes that Rogers’ exorbitant pricing plans are killing demand. Apple couldn’t care less what Canadian have to fork over to have the privilege of using the iPhone, Apple only cares about its public image. Apple simply doesn’t want photos circling the globe showing iPhones collecting dust on shelves.
How are Roger’s plans different than AT&T;’s new higher plans?
Want one too, but I’ll be waiting for better rates!
@Snarling in BC
Finally someone in BC understand us in Quebec
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Shame on Apple for allowing this to happen with their product.
I was going to buy one, saw the plans, and now will never buy one under those terms.
“Apple should pull the iPhone from Rogers immediately. “
pull out? no!!! leave em there and make em watch as 70 countries sell out and Rogers watches potential money walk away. they wanna screw customers? screw em back….
Here is a really good “open letter” to Rogers and Apple talking about data use on the iPhone 3G:
http://www.ehmac.ca/ipod-itunes-iphone-apple-tv/66402-letter-rogers-apple.html
@ Snarling in BC
Sounds like you are one of those that voted for Preston Manning.
@tee hee hee or what ever you are calling yourself now…..
“Apple is limiting shipments of iPhones to Canada not to punish Rogers, but because Apple realizes that Rogers’ exorbitant pricing plans are killing demand”
umm, comprehension is more than just a big word. try it sometime….
It’d be nice if they could pull it completely but Rogers in the only one that can provide service for the iPhone… now if Apple decided to make a CDMA version for Canada… then you’d have some competition to force them to be fair with their price plans
shen,
What don’t you understand, cretin?
But is that $115 in Canadian dollars?
Hate “Robbers” I really wanted an iphone but I will not let those pricks rob me of my hard earned money anymore, canceled my hi-speed (for those Canadians interested in a better solution try teksavvy), canceling cable in a month and when this spectrum auction is done and competitive carriers are announced it`s bye-bye Robbers forever. Someday there`ll be a lecture in a business class recalling the Robbers iphone fiasco.
OMG people. Apple charges through the nose for it’s products and you all pony up and gladly pay. Why call the kettle black now. Apple gets to dodge this one and let Roger’s take the flak. No doubt Apple makes a bunch on each phone too.
Anyhoo, if you don’t like it, don’t buy it. There’s plenty of other phones that will work just fine though they won’t give you the iCache of the iPhone.
People won’t come up to you and say “you have an iPhone. Cooooo!”
I agree with you shen.
ho ho ho is becoming a little tedious. if thats him in this thread…
regarding this thread.
it’s likely Rogers have been a pain all the way through negotiations. apple limiting there supply probably was always on the cards.
sorry Canadian dudes. life sucks a little more than you deserve.
Apple is all about the consumer experience. If that experience is being ripped off, that’ll compromise the Apple brand. Apple’s contract with Rogers probably precludes them from cutting Rogers off completely, but if the latter receives only, say, one iPhone per store, Rogers will get the message.
I will not buy one until Rogers gives reasonable, unlimited data plans.
I knew they would be greedy enough to pull something like this. The idiots think they won the negotiations with Apple.
A 55% return on a few hundred iPhones is not more than a 25% return on hundreds of thousands of iPhones you idiots!
Rogers blew the chance to get thousands of switchers from Bell and Telus because of pure greed.
\ln,
apple limiting there supply probably was always on the cards.
Translation from cretinese to English, “It was Apple’s plan from the beginning to limit iPhone sales so poor Rogers had to jack prices.”
It’s just another cruel trick to convince Canadians that the units are in short supply so they will rush to the stores on Friday to get one “before they are gone”. Don’t fall for it!!! It was likely instigated by Rogers or Rogers/Apple combined.
Mr. Roger’s neighborhood sucks. Or tries to suck $ out of Canucks.
\ln,
apple limiting there supply probably was always on the cards.
Translation from cretinese to English, ‘It was Apple’s plan from the beginning to see headlines circling the globe “No one buys iPhones in Canada”.’
\ln,
apple limiting there supply probably was always on the cards.
Translation from cretinese to English, ‘It was Apple’s plan from the beginning to see headlines circling the globe “Canadians reject Apple’s iPhone”.’
I have eight Macs at my business – both laptops and desktops. The oldest is the first “half moon” flat screen iMac. I love Macs and so do my employees.
Rogers can stick it. There is NO WAY I’m going pay that kind of money for service – iPhone or not.
@Tommy Boy
They are very different $70 vs $115 unlimited data vs 2GB limit
To all cretinous fanbois,
If Apple was managed by intelligent people Apple would have held a press conference denouncing Rogers price gouging, refusing to be complicit in overcharging, and delaying iPhone introduction to Canada until Rogers lowered its prices.
Instead, Apple, in profound arrogance and ignorance, anticipating Canadians would gladly overpay for iPhones, shakes hands with Rogers, smiles all around. Then disaster strikes as enraged Canadians refuse to be played and boycott Apple’s iPhone.
Apple, now realizing its profound blunder of promising much and delivering little, pulls its dust gathering iPhones from Canadian shelves and recalls all shipments to Canada.
Steve Jobs last seen, tail between legs, heading south from Vancouver.
Was gonna get one until rates came out. Now I’ll just wait a little longer for the new iPod Touch. I gave up on cell phones when I moved from the US to Canada anyway.
My guess is that they want it priced out of the market so folks still buy RIM (Blackberry) products, seeing as RIM is a Canadian company and Apple is a US company.
And it wouldn’t surprise me if Rogers has a financial stake in RIM.
@Tommy Boy
$75 + $6.95 (Mandatory Service Access Fee) = $82
$82 = 300 min, 750mb data, 100 txt msg (no caller ID either unless you pay extra)
ATT = $70 = 450 min, UNLIMITED data, caller ID. NO txt msgs
The biggest difference is the DATA. unlimited vs 750mb is big, the iPhone is a internet phone. limiting it’s data use is ridiculous.
@ha ha ha
Riddle me this…. what does the one time cost of the device have to do with a service provider`s greed? Come back when you get a whiff of a clue, back on the short bus `tard!
@haha, so you’re the demand-supply market genius? Pray tell what job you currently hold?
KenC,
@haha, so you’re the demand-supply market genius? Pray tell what job you currently hold?
President, Apple Marketing Division
zipper,
Riddle me this…. what does the one time cost of the device have to do with a service provider`s greed? Come back when you get a whiff of a clue, back on the short bus `tard!
Apple finally sees that its greed and arrogance do not translate to robust sales.
Apple cuts it losses and runs from Canada.
Apple suffers worldwide embarrassment.
Apple reluctantly admits most canucks smarter than Apple, Inc.
Apple forgets everything it ought to have learned from the Great Canadian Catastrophe.
You should say something about the Danish operator Telia, which will be charging $ u.s. 125 with a 300MB of monthly data, that’s awful!!!
Yup, no clue at all
zipperhead,
Elementary, cretin, Rogers pricing plan has made the iPhone inaccessible to most Canadians, unless canucks want to purchase the world’s most expensive paperweight. In other words, moron, Apple won’t sell any iPhones if the total cost of ownership is prohibitive.
How Apple fails to understand basic economics is astounding. I can only imagine that Cupertino is awash with idiots and simpletons for allowing The Great Canadian Catastrophe to develop.
It’s obvious that this simple reality escapes you. too.
Am I mistaken or is Rogers NOT the ONLY ‘3G’ game in Canada? Them, and their wholly-owned subsidiary, that is. If I’m right, then Apple has no real choice but to deal with them. Or bypass the entire nation. And how would Canadians feel about that? Worse, I expect. And They’d hate Apple instead of Rogers. If you were Apple, what would your choice be?
Ha ha ha, please do not refer to other posters as ‘sub-human’ or ‘mentally deficient’. They can type, and spell, and use proper grammar … which is more than many flamers are capable of.
DLMeyer,
I will take you seriously as a paragon of virtue and internet etiquette when you also take the time to lecture everyone who violates your tender sensitivities.
Besides, I just call ’em like I see ’em.
I’ll be voting with my wallet, come July 11th, by *not* buying an iPhone (painful) and by canceling my existing Roger’s cell account.
Apple is a least in part to blame for discontinuing sales without a contract and giving the iPhone to only one provider who can then act like mafia. I’m not exactly poor, but I have to wonder if I’ll ever be able to afford to use one ….
My guess is there will also be an abundance of the criminal element at the Rogers Stores (Besides Rogers themselves) as any one who can afford $150+ Per Month for a Personal Computing Device, will probably have a wallet full of cash, or at lease a shiny new iPhone ripe for the taking.
Anyway if this is true Good for Apple, the other 2 major carriers in Canada have in the last week proven that an unlimited plan can be offered for $30.00 + Voice pre month.
Apple can’t force Rogers to charge reasonable rates–they just make the device. So if Apple expects to sell a lot more of these things in Europe than Canada, it probably makes sense to divert Rogers’ stock for the UK, Germany, France, etc. where the demand will be stronger.
Here’s what I expect will happen. Rogers sells out of its now-limited stock right away (there’s plenty of people who can and will pay anything for this thing) and then it becomes like that LG prada phone–a designer device for the well-connected and/or for those who know how to get one as they dribble into the stores 10 at a time. Then the news reports will flood in from around the world about happy iPhone users improving their productivity, their social lives, and their efficiency by using iPhone 3G. Canadians will wistfully wish they could get one and complain to Rogers and Apple about supply. Apple will tell Rogers to get their shit together and charge something fair before Apple sends more shipments their way. Rogers caves and Canadians finally get their due (and with gratitude due to Apple).
Rogers needs the iPhone more than ever, what with Bell getting the Instinct. But Apple doesn’t need Canada, a population the size of California, when it has the whole damn world to sell to. Rogers needs to smarten up or it’ll really incur the populace’s wrath when they really realize Apple’s ready to leave them in the cold if need be (no pun intended).
I WILL be buying one on July 11 because it allows me to actually punish Rogers where it hurts.
I plan to take my current phone/data (North America 400 min + 5MB of data (yes 5 MB for $40)) that costs me $160/month and going with the $75 plan that gives me 300 min + 750 MB of data + nationwide wifi hotspot access.
Yes it is a rip-off relative to the rest of the world, but in my unique case I get to remove $70/month from Mr. Rogers wallet.
Why does everyone (to Rogers Glee) keep quoting this “nationwide wifi hotspot ” crap, this is not like we have WiFi every where, these are in very limited supply, only 4 in the City I live in and they are all Bell, (Not sure if they are covered as Rogers states at Rogers and Fido Hot Spots). This is just a marketing ploy to fatten up the list of what you get.
Silly Canadian totalitarians… and they were mocking other regimes around the world! hah!
This time it is their time to show who they really are and they did. They only hurt their own customers.
Retards…
Besides, I just call ’em like I see ’em.
Says the blind man to his deaf wife as his legless daughter dances about the room…
Hold off purchasing the iPhone 3G, for now. Things will change and options will become available.
For example,
1. the CRTC has made it mandatory for Rogers, Bell and Telus to provide bandwidth, roaming and tower/site sharing to the winners of the spectrum auctions here in Canada.
Go to: http://www.ic.gc.ca/epic/site/smt-gst.nsf/en/sf08833e.html
In particular read the following sections:
• Roaming
• Antenna Tower and Site Sharing
This means that Rogers (and the others) will have to provide all of the above, for up to 10 years or until their new competition gets their own network up.
2. AT&T;announced that it will be selling the iPhone 3G unlocked in the near future, granted at a higher than “with plan” price, but your paying for the iPhone one way or the other anyway.
3. Don’t underestimate the talents of the Unaligned Developer Community to help us out. They did it before and I’m betting they will do it again.
4. VOIP apps and WiFi
5. New iPod Touch with microphone (camera etc…) and #5, soon, by Christmas 08 I predict.
These are not the best solutions for right now because we all want one, but hold off if you can.
BMTOCA
You have to wonder if Rogers might be considering capitulating to the needs of their current customers and potential customers.
I know many have said that Ted (Rogers), has never seen a dollar he doesn’t want, but I for one am really hoping there’s enough traction here to at least make them consider revising these outrageous plans. For any customer planning on using Mobile Me to the best of its abilities, I’m sure even the largest data plan will get used up relatively quickly.
As it stands right now, I, like hopefully many others, will not be forking out my money for those terms and rates.
Suck it Rogers….
There’s really three organizations in Canada to blame:
1. Apple. For selling the iPhone locked to a single carrier (unlike many other countries) and at the same time removing the ability to purchase one outright from their online stores. It would clearly be financial folly to actually sell them at their (dishonestly) asserted price of $199/$299.
2. Canada’s CRTC. Who has allowed our media and communications companies to have a captive market, forcing Canadians to use proprietary supplied equipment.
3. Rogers. Who, because of the first two items, knows nobody else can sell or provide services for the iPhone meaning they can charge extortionist prices. They purposely reduce the amount of rings to 4 knowing most people can’t answer within that amount of time meaning an additional call display package is an absolute necessity (imagine if your land-line company did that!!). A base contract will cost $60 + $15 mandatory system access fees + a $15 call display package which equals $90/month *before* taxes just for severely limited access. What a blatant rip-off!
Canadians are pissed because most of us knew full well this would happen but were desperately hoping the iPhone would usher in a new era.
@niclet…Quebec wants to join Washington state???? How do you say retarded in french?
@snarling in BC….looks like you found a butt-buddy in Quebec.
@MacDaddy….I love the way you paint everyone with the same paintbrush. Its like saying all americans are stupid (I am not saying that btw).
I have used my iPhone extensively every day since launch day last year, and I still only have 208MB of sent data and 1.3GB of data received on the cell phone (you can see this in your usage statistics). This doesn’t include the Wi-Fi data, which is free. I think it is really hard to get 2GB in a month. You don’t use the iPhone for P2P.
@ OctoberMac
If you are using Mobile Me for all your photos and stuff, I think you’ll be using a lot more than 1.5GB.
I may not be a standard user, but I’m anticipating 25-30 photos per week, that’s on the low-end. At a meg or so each, that’ll add up pretty quickly.
If you’re not a subscriber to Mobile Me, I’m sure you’re correct, 2GB may well be enough.
It’s probable that Apple simply realized, because of the prohibitive pricing, that Rogers wasn’t going to sell as many phones as initially hoped and so Apple cut the allotment. Someone MAY have had access to some raw channel numbers but the rest is made up. Conjecture. Like so many of the posts i’ve read on this. Cut back on the caffeine people and do some real work!
@Ha, ha, ha
Sad pathetic lonely boy.
To those considering buying the iPhone in Canada under Rogers plans, don’t forget about the inevitable bandwidth inflation that occurs over time. Sure, maybe some of you have calculated that you can get by with Rogers’ imposed bandwidth limits, but remember that they’ve got you by the gonads for three long years. In three years Youtube videos will be higher quality, Webpages will be fancier and larger, photos will be bigger and so on, all of which will mean you’ll need considerably more bandwidth just to do exactly the same things you plan to use it for today. And it is virtually guaranteed new, cool things will emerge that you’ll want to take advantage of as well, but you won’t be able to because you’ll be stuck using some shitty plan that a greedy billionaire devised hoping you would think it was good enough for now, in order that he could squeeze every last asset out of your private parts in the years to come.
As a fellow passionate enthusiast of the iPhone and just about all things Apple, I urge you not to buy an iPhone under these crappy, insulting and degrading plans. Wait awhile, and things will have to change. And please urge others to do the same. We’re mad as hell and we’re not going to take it anymore!
Chip
@Chip
Amen brother!!
Why can’t they just make a CDMA version one, GSM is a inferior technology anyways. we all know it would increase the dev cost to create a CDMA version… Woopty frikin doo…just create the damm thing already!
The Canadians should limit there purchases to the Apple Store and hold off on buying into Rogers’ plans till the rates are corrected… one Rogers finds that they have sold what 250 in the first week and Apple has sold 100,000 plus… they might get it!
But who readily knows for sure…. greed is a evil habit and Rogers has been hooked on said habit for a very long time!
Buy Apple products from Apple!
@ Brau and CDMA hey why don’t you blame the rain for falling while you’re at it. Put youself in Apples position. You are about to create a game changing device that allows you to mobile compute and communicate that you eventually hope to sell world wide. Why would you deliberately design a device that is incompatible with the majority of world cell standards and why would you choose carriers with the lowest network cell site penetration and fewest customers .
I know that here in the states a ton of taxes and fees are passed on to customers that adds between $20 to $40 on a cell phone bill. I’m sure there are probably more in Canada. Can any of you prognosticating Canadiens say that Fido would not do what Rogers is now doing if they had gotten the Iphone?
Blaming a company for making money is like blaming a water fall for falling. You think it is excessive what they propose to charge don’t buy the phone and don’t pay it. By the way what does Rogers charge in rates for the vaunted Canadian built Blackberry? If it is the same then or only a small difference you guys have nothing to complain about. Go to their site and look it up I’m sure it is there.
I think the problem here is most of the people that are complaining about cost and carriers do not have or have not experienced smart phones. Rogers rates for Blackberry email only service (no voice or data ) start at $15 per month. Great if all you want is email, no ability to check you stocks , check the weather and get a 5 day forecast for anywhere in the world, be able to locate an address for a person or business and call their number or go to their website, get a route and instantaneous traffic reprots for that route 24/7. Trade stock buy plane tickets, book motel rooms and camp sites all from web sites on the fly. Probably 90% of us world wide would say we don’t need to do that from our cell phones. Looking at Rogers convoluted plans for the Blackberry I think their plans for the Iphone are conparable if not favorable.
Crying monoply has become a witch hunt ever since the likes of Microsoft and their thug like business practices. The truth is precious few of us on this site know the business realities that Rogers faces. They boast to be Canada’s most reliable network. I know Verizon in the US has been extracting a hefty premium from their customers for that moniker for years. A reliable network in a country that is so vast and thinly populated as Canada is bound to take some serious investment and maintaining it ain’t cheap either. Not to mention you have fewer subscribers over which to recover your costs and the Canadian government has not been known to make things cheaper for businesses. How many of you Canadians wanna bet that all businesses in Canada foot a significant amount of their profit in taxes to your vaunted universal health care programs, (get the most expensive voice and data plan grampa need to refill his viagra prescription).
You may conclude that Apple is punishing Rogers by reducing it’s supply but it’s quite possible both companies are just dealing with the realities of their particular markets. I’ve had the Iphone for a year now, I paid $650 at an Apple store for my unit and I’ve never regretted it. I had a Motorola Q on Verizon’s network that was like dealing with stone tablets compared to an Iphone. I take pictues at job sites and email bids to customers, take notes and send data to business associates .
My I phone has paid for itself 10 times over in productivity enhancement. When I’m stuck in a tunnel on the night shift waiting to go hone I can play my music or whatch a preloaded movie or TV show episode to stem the boredome. It also makes a pretty good baby sitter if you wanna load some educational programs on there.
@ bobchr:
Fido does have the iPhone. They got bought out I think it was last year by, who? Oh right. Rogers. Effectively ensuring their monopolistic position, and I might add – a sale that was happily approved by our Canadian government.
Gotta love it.
And I have no issue whatsoever with a company like Rogers – or anyone else for that matter – making money. Unfortunately their data and voice plans as they stand, or a’ la carte – are substantially worse than many, many other plans worldwide. I’ll happily pay for a plan that includes unlimited data and enough minutes to last me for a month. At this point, a plan like that doesn’t exist – for me or anyone.
Rogers whole excuse of – “we think unlimited data would mean our customers would be paying for data they won’t use”, is a joke. I say this as I review Rogers exorbitant overage charges on my girlfriends cell bill for last month, Trust me, they know what they’re doing here. They’re banking on it.
Me and my prognosticating….
Sorry…
@ bobchr again
Rogers is not paying any more money to maintain their network than anyone else is. In fact now that the network is in place, they are likely paying less than they ever have, even in “a country as vast and thinly populated as Canada”.
Their wireless division reported over 2 billion dollars in profit last year, and they are not building out anything.
Their network is in place and they are rolling in dough. Rolling in it….
Apple should “cut off” T-Mobile / Germany for their outrageous plans as well. T-Mobile / Austria (and other T-Mobile countries) are much more reasonable. The company appears to be intent on raping their German customers with the iPhone. I had eagerly looked forward to buying an iPhone, but under no circumstances would I buy one with any T-Mobile / Germany contract as they are currently.
This is the problem consumers face when there is a lack of competition and no true open market. Canada has a firmly ingrained protectionist culture – to a fault.
Rogers is simply taking advantage of their position because they know they’re sitting in the catbird seat. If Canadian consumers want to send a message, they have to organize a mass agreement to NOT buy the phone.
Pricing decisions are based on profit models according to sliding economies of scale. They know that based on this price they only have to sell so many units to equal a lesser price/larger unit model. My guess is they’re counting on people not being able to contain their lust for the product and will give in to temptation, prices be damned.
I recommend the Canadian consumers organize. It’s the only way you’ll force your will on a monolith like Rogers.