Matt's Blog

The very hyped about, and most awaited phone, is coming to Canada. That’s right the Apple iPhone will be coming to Canada! I inquired about it with Rogers Wireless, and I got a response back shortly afterwards. Here’s the key points from their response:

Rogers is actively working with Apple to launch the iPhone in Canada
as soon as possible and will be the exclusive provider of the iPhone in
Canada.

Please be advised that Rogers will be offering the iPhone exclusively
in Canada.

Launch date and pricing for Canada are not yet available.

Other Canadian wireless carriers will not launch the iPhone; Rogers will be the only Canadian wireless carrier to offer the iPhone.

This is great news! Now, to elaborate a bit on that.

The iPhone will be exclusively offered at Rogers in Canada because it’s currently the only Wireless Carrier in Canada to be using up-to-date Wireless service technology. Telus is using really old technology, and Bell is using newer technology, but still not new enough.

As I understand it, the iPhone is a 2G Quad Band GSM and EDGE phone, while Rogers supports 3G Quad Band GSM and EDGE service. So, the iPhone and the Rogers Wireless service are compatible (and then some).

I’m going to estimate that the iPhone will be released in Canada in August. As for the price, I’m going to estimate… for the 4GB, $599 CAD with no contract and $399 CAD with a 3 year contract. For the 8GB, $699 CAD with no contract and $449 CAD with a 3 year contract.

One problem I see here, is that data plans in Canada are expensive; and with the iPhone you’ll probably be using lots of data. So you’ll most likely be seeing “iPhone Plans”, just like “Blackberry Plans“. The iPhone Plans will have considerably more data for considerably cheaper than the Blackberry Plans. That’s my guess, anyways.

The iPhone itself is actually smaller than people think it is. It’s thinner than the Blackberry Curve, and is just a bit bigger than my closed RAZR V3i. It’s actually thinner than the V3i, too. Which is amazing, since it has way more features. The iPhone is a little heavier, though.

Apple has said that the screen has been “upgraded” from a Plastic screen, to a Glass screen. That may seem like a good thing… until you drop it and the screen shatters into a million pieces (it’s probably temperated, though, so it’ll just crack). The battery life is pretty impressive, at least. Up to 8 hours of Talk time, 6 hours of Internet, 7 hours of Video, 24 hours of music/audio or 250 hours of standby time. Which probably exceeds most (Smart)Phones, MP3 players and even the iPod 5.5 Generation (Video).

For those of you in other parts of the world, Rogers also told me this:

Apple is planning to introduce the iPhone in Europe (Q4 2007) and Asia
(2008).

I’m looking forward to the release of the iPhone in Canada. Hey, maybe I’ll even save up to get one!