More iPhone in Canada stuff

The Jan 18th date rings true for me... I was predicting a little earlier (Steve Jobs' Keynote at Macworld is the 15th).

Two things have been holding up the iPhone release in Canada:
1. The iPhone trademark is currently owned by Comwave, a national VoIP provider in Canada that markets a VoIP product called iPhone.
2. Rogers greedy data plans which, compared to AT&T's iPhone plan would cost $1000+ more due to the amount of data required when using the iPhone (ie. visual voicemail, sending/receiving email and attachments, etc)

Considering both points however, it's reasonable to assume that Rogers, Apple and Comwave have all had a reasonable amount of time to address these challenges. This means that we could hear news about the iPhone release in Canada during Steve Jobs' Keynote at this month's 2008 Macworld Conference and Expo.

More info on my blog at:
http://benlucier.ca/work/communications/macworld-apple-to-announce-iphone-in-canada/

Will wait till the official release date - whenever that may be..

http://www.Canada-iPhone.blogspot.com

I really, really want to pick up an iPhone.... but I'm growing weary of the 'hang on, it's coming next month.... HONEST' type rumours. I'm thinking Jan 19 I'll just pick up a Blackberry (assuming this is yet-another-false-rumour). Wonder if the iPhone will be in Toronto when that 3 year contract runs out.

So i got one from the states and then tried to pull some apple tech support on it, saying that im in usa and canada, and the wonderful tech dude says ... i know im from canada too, but in a call center for usa, and i cant wait till it comes in q1 of 2008 ! so .... i am waiting ! thanks apple for giving me something to hope for... i hope this doesnt make you have to fire a call center rep, but you shouldnt tell your employees too much ..... well not release dates .!!! cause now im waiting ,...

At least Jack got his iPhone up in Canada .... too bad it doesn't work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cx2DeXA4v8w

*head in hands*

Like Apple would ever, EVER allow Rogers to launch the iPhone so subtly.

Has anyone seen the new Rogers ads? Apple's not going to give us the iPhone until we kill off each and every one of those irritating, spoiled suburban brats who demand nondescript "eight gig music phones that hold, like, ten-THOUSAND songs!" for Christmas.

well why is the zoom right on the picture? because the picture has no iphone on it, the man is just making a call with some phone..

come on people when its going to come we will see on the rss feed of apple in 30 days notice

Touch-Commander.com, provides sliding "one touch" access to phone calls, emails, SMS messages, calendar functions, pictures, music, videos and other applications and commonly used content.

Touch Commander is much the same as the finger touch scrolling, browsing, and spinning of a three dimensional interface by the finger, that is found on the Apple iPhone and the TouchPhone by HTC.

This story looks interesting. Firstly this flyer is glossy, which means it was printed on expensive paper on a professional printer or press. It's very likely this is not a hoax.

Secondly this story confirms the Molson's gaffe of two weeks ago. They too hinted at a January 2008 release.

I'm thinking this story has an 80% chance of being true.

***
If we think this story is correct, then we have to ask ourselves "why January 18th?". Why didn't Apple just release the phone prior to Christmas 2007? The U.K. and Germany got theirs Nov 9th... France on Nov 28th. Why was Canada pushed back to Jan 2008???? Retail sales are falling in the U.S., while in Canada sales are going up. In fact the iPhone was listed as the 8th most requested item for Christmas in Canada (even though it's not on sale up here yet). Apple is missing out on a big selling season for some inexplicable reason? They can ill afford to do that. They've promised investors an analysts that they are going to sell several million units between Jun 2007 and Dec 2008. The longer they delay... the more Blackberry picks up this Christmas.

Remember MacWorld is always held in January... this year it's from Jan 14-18, 2008 in San Francisco. That is very interesting. Apple always announces new products at this time. This year it's very likely Apple will overhaul it's work stations and laptops... because they are over due for a change. I've been hearing rumours of a new tablet type machine with Apple's new touch screen interface. And there have also been rumours of a 3G iPhone. One stock analyst predicted Apple is going to introduce one by March 2008. The analyst said that their channel checks are indicating Apple is shopping around for lower powered 3G chips (Broadcom an Apple Bluetooth supplier has just introduced such a chip this past October). Also Rogers has just rolled out a new 3G network across most of Canada (Nov/07)... they've invested a lot of money in this. Perhaps Rogers told Apple they would pass on the EDGE iPhone, and wait for the 3G version instead... and that's why we are getting this device so late.

So with Apple's Canadian iPhone being launched during MacWorld, there is a good chance (50/50) this might be a 3G iPhone.

Time will tell. It's just strange to me that Apple is choosing a very important product news week to release the iPhone to Canada.

Rogers stock was downgraded this last week in New York by Merrill Lynch from buy to neutral. They stated future pricing pressure in their wireless business as the reason. Telus was also downgraded by Merrill Lynch too... for the same reasons. Is Merrill Lynch expecting Rogers will have to lower it's data pricing soon... just like Apple wants?

please iPhone just come to canada, please...