Tuesday, July 08, 2008

Steve Matthews on Rogers' Canadan iPhone Pricing

I can't help but agree with Steve Matthews' assessment of the pricing situation for the to-be-released iPhone from Rogers.

It's frustrating. Since I gave my blackberry back when I left my law firm I'm been holding off getting any sort of PDA or smart phone to see what would happen. I'm frustrated that a 3-year contract is required for any kind of reasonable pricing, and even then unlimited data is not available. I would love to start using a live-streaming video service like Qik but it will just not be practical without unlimited data.

I feel this is holding our whole country back from keeping up with the rest of the world's mobile industries. This 1990s thinking ("let's see how much money we can get out of them") is still holding back wide adoption of mobile technology. If they would drop the pricing so many more of us would sign up immediately.

I'm inclined to hold off buying any of the shiny new toys from Rogers (iPhone, Blackberry Bold, or the Palm Centro I was really coveting) because of the pricing. As someone who wants to be on the leading edge of computing, I'm just not sure what else to turn to. My current 3-year cell phone contract with Bell is up and I'm equally frustrated with the service I've had with it. The phone itself is nice, but the pricing too expensive to use all the funky web and music features. And the voicemail interface has a lot to be desired.

4 comments:

Connie Crosby said...

Lots of scuttlebut about fallings out between Rogers and Apple too.

Friday (release date for the iPhone in Canada) should be interesting!

Meg said...

"I'm inclined to hold off buying any of the shiny new toys from Rogers (iPhone, Blackberry Bold, or the Palm Centro I was really coveting) because of the pricing. As someone who wants to be on the leading edge of computing, I'm just not sure what else to turn to."

I'm feeling the same way. I've been coveting an iPhone too, but the monthly cost is what really makes me hesitate. There just aren't enough lower use options, even just for the phone part. I rarely use more than 100 minutes, but I'm on a hold-over plan for 350 minutes that they don't even officially offer anymore. I've been going more back than forth lately on forking over even more on top of what AT&T is currently ripping me off for, even though I also feel inadequately techie with my old Razr.

Connie Crosby said...

And you're in the U.S. with even better pricing options than in Canada! Crazy, huh?

Anonymous said...

I feel the pain of Canadian pricing stupidity too. I also am currently with Bell and my contract is expiring but I just feel like no choice is a good choice. I love the HTC 6800 smartphone but the data charges are obscene, and I feel no comfort if I can't get an unlimited plan. I hope someday I can decide what to get...