Did Apple Really Stand Up to Rogers in Canada?
Rogers Communications is the biggest mobile service provider in Canada, and it was their responsibility to roll out the price plans for the iPhone’s initial release into the Great White North.
Their base plan, however is a complete atrocity. For $60 a month, customers sign a 3 year contract, get 150 minutes of talk time, 75 text messages, and a paltry 400MB of data. An online petition has even sprung up in protest of the plans, and has been signed by well over 50,000 people.
Today it’s being reported by almost every tech blog on the Internet, and initially by AppleInsider, that Apple was enraged by the plans and decided not to sell any iPhones in the six or so Apple stores in Canada.
The phone would only be available at Rogers/Fido stores, of which there are tons. Honestly, it looks like AppleInsider is pushing a meme that Apple is good and Rogers is evil, when there is actually no change in Apple’s position about selling the iPhone in Canada.
However, Apple has indicated they are not happy with Rogers’ plans, and may have diverted some iPhones away from Canada to Europe (where a lot of the plans are that much better, including France’s Orange). This is the real story, and where Apple comes out looking good.
But the idea that Apple today decided to stand up for the little guy in Canada and completely pull out of distributing iPhones is false. In fact, it was known a couple of weeks ago that Apple stores in Canada would not be distributing the iPhone, and that they won’t be sold in a good number (if not all) non-USA Apple stores. Apple stores in Canada will have displays of the new iPhone for people to look at as well.
Apple did do the right thing if they diverted iPhones away from Canada to protest Rogers’ price gouging. But the story that they are pulling the iPhones from stores over the price spat appears to be overblown.
Technorati Tags: apple, iphone, rogers
