Another Rogers photo: iPhone in Canada on January 18th

Another photo of some Rogers point-of-sale material for the iPhone hit the internet today. This time the launch date in Canada is January 18th. I’m still not convinced this is the real deal, but I’m getting closer. At least this time the Rogers logo looks like it is in the right place ;).

Fingers crossed everyone.

If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is

This Rogers ad for the iPhone in Canada found its way onto the web yesterday via the Boy Genius Report. Looks like a botched photoshop job to me. But still, we can dream can’t we?

How to justify buying an iPhone in Canada

Last week I finally gave in to temptation. I drove to Buffalo and bought an iPhone. It’s now unlocked and working just fine over wifi and the Rogers network.

Since picking it up I’ve had a ton of friends tell me they really want an iPhone, but can’t decide if they should wait until Rogers release it here. I felt the same way until last week. So, here is how I justified buying an iPhone for use in Canada right now. I hope this helps…

1. The iPhone isn’t (officially) coming to Canada anytime soon
Being the only GSM company in Canada, Rogers are guaranteed the iPhone. Back in June they announced they were in talks with Apple but said they were progressing very slowly, and today a friend of mine with contacts at Rogers told me talks are still progressing very slowly. Rogers have had 6 months to negotiate with Apple and they still don’t have a deal. Makes me think it is very unlikely the iPhone will be out in Canada before the holidays, and it could be a much longer wait.

Why the big delay? The iPhone is so out of whack with Rogers product strategy that I think they will have real trouble striking a deal with Apple. For example, my wife bought a new phone from Rogers in the weekend. It came pre-loaded with a Rogers theme (some horrible red thing) and it was full of embedded links to things like the Rogers music store. Apple are most likely saying Rogers can’t put anything on the phone, plus as I understand it Apple are asking for a rev share deal. The iPhone also promotes massive data usage, something that Rogers with their current pricing plans just aren’t set up to accommodate. Finally, Rogers know that hacked iPhones from the US can only work on their network so they’ll be getting all of the business coming from cross border sales anyway.

I’m guessing manages at Rogers Wireless are in no hurry to finalize a deal with Apple. As long as the competition aren’t going to release the iPhone (which they can’t, because everyone but Rogers is on CDMA) it’s in their best interest to stick to selling blackberries and other handsets from manufactures who play nice.

2. Even without mobile data, the iPhone is a great device
I’ve been surprised at how the iPhone has fit into my life. I expected to be constantly checking email when I was out and about, but instead I’m using it on my wifi network at home more often. I’m finding it a great way to quickly check a facebook message, look up movie times, check the weather, do a wikipedia search, check my google calendar for the next day… all without opening my laptop. The iPhone is also just a lovely interface for text messaging, and has a pretty solid phone and camera. So, even without the mobile data, I think it’s worth the $399.

3. If you’re only checking email, Rogers sells 10MBs of data for $5
In Canada, your first 10MBs of data are cheap. It’s the next 100 that’ll bankrupt you! If you live in or around Toronto you can sign up to a Rogers Vision deal that gives you 10MBs for $5. This means if you’re desperate to check email on your iPhone, you can – and it’s cheap.

4. $399 US = $399 CND, and that’s not going to last forever
Cross boarder shopping is as good as it’s going to get with the 1:1 exchange rate. And Buffalo is only a 2 hour drive from Toronto.

5. And finally, if you don’t get on the iPhone product release bandwagon now, you might never
Yes, Apple will release a 16GB iPhone after the holidays. Yes, they will probably have a model with video and all of the other features people are demanding not long after that. But in my experience with all things Apple, if you wait for the perfect product you’ll be waiting for the rest of your life. Get an iPhone now – enjoy it – and you won’t feel so bad about upgrading in a year ;).

Note: Having written this post I feel like a cross between a raving Apple fan boy and a sleazy PR exec. Disclosure: I did not get paid to write this ;).

Apparently, “Canadians pay lowest wireless prices in North America”

This might actually be funny if we wasn’t so likely to succeed.

The Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (i.e. Rogers, Telus, Bell and friends) has launched a lobby site for the 2008 wireless spectrum auction headlined “Real competition benefits all of us.”

Their lead story is a July 2007 report from the OECD that says, “…mobile phone customers in Canada enjoy some of the most competitive wireless prices among the 30 countries that comprise the organization’s membership.”

I think I could find a few people willing to argue with that ;).

After all that has been written about the farcical wireless pricing in Canada, it’s hard to believe the CWTA would come out with such a brazen communication plan. But they have. And I’m sure they don’t see the funny side.

Particularly paranoid about wireless rates are all of us Canadians hoping to buy an iPhone before the end of the year. We’re deathly scared it will be priced out of our hands by Rogers. More on that soon…

Using iPod Touch to play music over AirTunes

Along with everyone else, I’m pretty excited about the new iPod Touch.

I use my phone to listen to music when I’m wondering around town, but I’m excited about the Touch as a kind of mini, ultra portable PC. I figure I could use it for all the little things I do on the web around home without having to open up my laptop. Things like checking the weather, looking up a google map before running out the door, reading a facebook message…

The other big use I can see for the Touch is playing music over my AirTunes network. We have some bookshelf speakers plugged into an AirTunes router in the living room and that is the main way we listen to music at home. I love the flexibility we have to play whatever we like, but I hate having to open up my laptop to do it – I always get unintentionally lost in email for hours. Wouldn’t it be great if I could dial up iTunes on the Touch and play something over AirTunes?

Now, my research thus far has not turned up any conclusive prof this is actually possible, I’m just jumping to conclusions based on the fact the Touch has iTunes and a wifi connection. I’ll do some more digging and update this post as soon as I can get to the bottom of this.

Still a happy Apple owner

After owning Macs for almost 10 years I had my first real experience with Apple after sales service on the weekend. I guess I was expecting a lot and they didn’t disappoint.

I had managed to cleverly drop a screwdriver (don’t ask) on my keyboard a few weeks back and it had smashed the number 3 key out of place. The back of the key was busted so I definitely needed to make a trip to the Apple store.

The whole process was so simple:
1. Booked a time to see a “genius” ?!
2. Handed over my laptop to Trellawny.
3. Got it back in 5 minutes with a new key. No charge.
4. Left with a big smile on my face.

People will argue with me, but I still think Apple do the little things so well. Being able to book a time to see someone for example. Or the fact that they didn’t bother charging for a small repair. So, although I’d never admit to being a fanboy, I’m still a fan.

Sprawl

For most of us, this would be complete interface overkill. But after seeing Ethan Kaplan, head of technology for Warner Bros. Records, at the Mesh conference this year, I think his brain moves fast enough to make use of it.

Pluses and minuses of living in Canada

Minus: Putting up with second rate mobile phone companies.

This week us Canadians are sitting here watching America go crazy for the iPhone (launching at 6pm this Friday). You’d think now would be the perfect time for Rogers to announce a release schedule for Canada. But no, silence. To rub salt in the wounds we all got a nice look at the AT&T/iPhone rate plans announced yesterday. They are about half the price of a regular Blackberry plan in this country and they include unlimited data transfer!!

Comparison…
AT&T iPhone plan: $59.99 (USD)

• 450 daytime minutes
• 5000 nights and weekends
• Unlimited mobile to mobile
• Unlimited data
• 200 text messages

Rogers Blackberry plan: $112.95 ($90 + $6.95 system access + $6 text plan)

• 350 daytime minutes
• Unlimited nights and weekends
• 25 MB data
• 125 text messages

Today’s USD exchange rate: 0.94

Tom had a great post a couple of months ago detailing our fate as Canadian mobile data consumers. It’s not pretty.

Flickr photo of the day: iPod saves soldier’s life

Well, actually it is from a couple of days ago – but I found it today. Here is the caption:

My wife’s uncle works in a military hospital and told me about this. Its pretty amazing. Kevin Garrad (3rd Infantry Division) was on a street patrol in Iraq (Tikrit I believe) and as he rounded the corner of a building an armed (AK-47) insurgent came from the other side.

The two of them were within just a few feet of each other when they opened fire. The insurgent was killed and Kevin was hit in the left chest where his IPod was in his jacket pocket. It slowed the bullet down enough that it did not completely penetrate his body armor. Fortunately, Kevin suffered no wound.

Lessons about pricing

Spanning Sync, the calendar syncing tool I mentioned a while back, came out of beta today and announced they were going to start charging for their product. I think they’ve done a fantastic job developing a helpful little app and deserve to make some money. What’s interesting though is where they decided to set their fees and the instant reaction from their 18,000 current users.

Under the new pricing $25 gets you a one year account and $65 a permanent license. There is a 15 day free trial but no basic free option with a chance to upgrade later. The prices seem high to me. A one off payment of $20-25 is closer to what I was expecting, and what I would have paid.

So, first interesting thing is that they choose such high fees (keep in mind Apple iLife, with a whole host of complex applications, is only $79). Second interesting thing is the noise that their upset users have made. Check the comments here and here for the almost universal objection to the fees.

From a comment on the Unofficial Apple Weblog: “$65 once or $25 for a yearly subscription is well North of ridiculous. There’s no way I’ll even consider buying this product. The developer simply hasn’t built that kind of value into it.”

And from the Spanning Sync blog: “I have already uninstalled Spanning Sync. As lots of ppl say, price is outrageous. And I do think Apple will release some kind of Google sync service with Leopard, seeing that the collaboration between the two is becoming increasingly evident. Plus, what are the guarantees that the service won’t stop working next week?”

It will be interesting to see the response from Spanning Sync over the next couple of days. Maybe they will lower the price and try to win back the upset users. Or maybe they will conclude that these users will never pay them and decide to target a different kind of user who sees more value in the product.

As we get closer to launching our web application (still a few months away I’m afraid) we are beginning to think about how much value we will be creating for different users. In our case the value won’t be even. We expect many people will get great value from a free service but some will want to pay for premium features to access even more value.

One thing we will need to be very aware of, no matter what our pricing strategy, is the expectations of our users. If there is a lesson to be learned from the Spanning Sync example it is that you can never under deliver and over price in the eyes of your customers if you want them to stick around.