Apple fucks Rogers

[|darc|]

I know at least ace will be interested in this:
http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.a ... -to-rogers

Trouble is brewing in the Great White North, and it's all thanks to Rogers. It has been rumored that Apple has been displeased with Rogers over the carrier's less-than-stellar iPhone 3G plans, and had been considering diverting iPhone stock to other countries. The company has now apparently decided to pull out of selling the device through its own retail stores in Canada, leaving potential customers with Rogers, and Rogers alone.

Apple had a private conference call last night discussing the decision, which was confirmed again this morning by AppleInsider after calling a number of Canadian retail stores. Canadian Apple Stores will have demo units come launch day, but they won't have any to sell. Instead, those Canadian users who are not yet jaded and still want an iPhone will have to go to Rogers or its partner stores instead.

"We have nothing to do with the service plans. Those are Rogers' plans," one store representative told AI when asked whether the decision was related to the outrageously high-priced service fees.

Normally, I would say here that Canadians would be upset about Apple's decision, but it seems that they can't get much more upset than they already are at Rogers. The move on Apple's part—if true—seems to be both strategic and retaliatory. After all, if Rogers won't cooperate in making the iPhone an appealing product for customers, why waste time, energy, and valuable inventory on them? With only three more days before iPhone Day, Rogers had better figure out what its next step is going to be.

[sixteen-bit]

Rogers ... lock subscribers into steep 3-year contracts that require a minimum monthly payment of $60 for just 150 minutes, 75 text messages, and 400MB of data.

After reading that I'm not surprised

It's even worse than the laughable UK iPhone tarrifs.

[Nick]

And I thought the iPhone plans in the US were pricey.

[ace]

Thanks |darc|, I was actually going to post this, as well as some other Canadian iPhone news, but I'm probably the only one who cares, so I didn't bother.

So Rogers finally introduced a competitive date plan, in the form of a 6GB addon for $30/mo. The offer is time limited, ending August 31, but is available on Windows Mobile devices as well as iPhones.

It's one of the best mobile data plans currently available to Canadians, and certainly the best from Rogers in recent years. CDMA competitors Bell and Telus both currently have an unlimited data plan that also runs $30, though unlimited data in Canada simply means whatever the telcos want it to mean. Hell, Bell offers a $7 unlimited data/browsing feature for the HTC Touch (Vogue) and a $10 unlimited feature for the Instinct. I can personally attest that the $7 feature is completely unlimited, since I've been using it non-stop on my Touch (Vogue) since I got it in November.

After having spent a few turbulent years with Rogers I went over to Bell, but with the new $30/6GB plan and the impending iPhone release I might hop back on with Rogers.

I'm not sure if anyone was aware of the Canadian iPhone debacle, but essentially Rogers and it's subsidary, Fido (who Rogers bought out several years ago, creating a national GSM monopoly.) released plans that were absolutely devoid of value. See below.

Rogers called these plans "high value". Where is the value in these plans? The $60 plan is just a mish-mash of the lowest features and minutes that Rogers offers.

In any case, I'll probably be dumping my Bell HTC Touch (Vogue) and switch over to Rogers. I've wanted an iPhone since they came out, and though this data will add $23 extra to what I am paying now, I think it's worth it.

However, I still hate Rogers. I was livid when I saw those first iPhone plans. It's a little better now. We're still getting raped, but at least they are busting out the Astroglide now.