Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

iPod touch Canadians Please Speak Out: Why Are We Forgotten?

D

donster28

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Oct 5, 2006
1,726
811
Great White North
I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing, but the whole of Canada doesn't seem to have received any 'Touch' as of this time. I called the Apple Stores here in Toronto and all they can say is: "...it's shipping on the 28th of September."). Called Best Buy, Future Shop with the same sad results.

Does anyone know a Mac only store that might have gotten theirs in?

I ordered online on Sep 6th and my shipping status remain sad: NOY YET SHIPPED.

Could this have silver lining, considering the rampant video quality issues?
 
vanmacguy said:
Personally I couldn't give a rats behind about the iPod touch.

Where are the damn iPhones?

Cheers.
Click to expand...

HA! my thoughts exactly. Now UK, Germany, US have the iPhone and still no Canada? I thought Rogers was in partnership WITH AT&T. How hard could it be to release it up here!

Also we don't get access to all of the video content in iTunes either which is annoying as well!
 
Mrjynx said:
HA! my thoughts exactly. Now UK, Germany, US have the iPhone and still no Canada? I thought Rogers was in partnership WITH AT&T. How hard could it be to release it up here!

Also we don't get access to all of the video content in iTunes either which is annoying as well!
Click to expand...

Don't forget that Rogers has a monopoly of GSM phones in Canada. Have you EVER seen the pricing on unlimited data even now? It's 99.99$ CAN for the blackberry at Rogers. Imagine Apple trying to negotiate something with Rogers.... with NO competition (Fido is apart of Rogers now). Good luck.

I seriously think consumer groups should complain to the CRTC. They have NOT been protecting the rights of Canadians.

Then again, Apple may want to micro-manage the entrance into the mobile market. In all seriousness, Canada is quite small of a market.
 
SpaceJello said:
In all seriousness, Canada is quite small of a market.
Click to expand...


That might be true and who knows where negotiations are with Canadian carriers? Fact is though, that the UK — especially London — is a pre-eminent global media capital; Apple get more worldwide PR from announcing and releasing these products in London before they do in Toronto or Montreal, for instance.

When the iPhone is released in Asia, it'll be Tokyo and maybe Shanghai first. Not Seoul.

And we don't have the iPhone here yet, iPod touches yes, Nov 9 for the iPhone. And there still might be announcements for Canada to make the holiday season.
 
Well, this whole situation is a bunch of bull ****. First the Apple stores got them in, then Best Buy, and now pre-orders are arriving for those Americans that whined about it for so long.

Maybe if we did the same we might have it.
 
SpaceJello said:
Don't forget that Rogers has a monopoly of GSM phones in Canada. Have you EVER seen the pricing on unlimited data even now? It's 99.99$ CAN for the blackberry at Rogers. Imagine Apple trying to negotiate something with Rogers.... with NO competition (Fido is apart of Rogers now). Good luck.

I seriously think consumer groups should complain to the CRTC. They have NOT been protecting the rights of Canadians.

Then again, Apple may want to micro-manage the entrance into the mobile market. In all seriousness, Canada is quite small of a market.
Click to expand...

I agree that we are a small market when compared to the US, GB and Europe.

But we do seem to get the shaft all the time.

And I agree that Rogers and Telus have Canadians by the short ones. Our data plans are so ridiculously overpriced that I've always assumed the reason we haven't got them yet is that Apple won't let Rogers et al charge that much. I heard that Rogers first cut at a data plan for iPhone was going to cost $300 a month, and that that would give Canadians about 60% of the data that people in the US have.

At that price I don't know a single person that would sign up. As big a fan as I am and as much as I want one, there's just no way.

At $300 a month, Apple could give the iPhone away (wow what a storm of protest that would cause huh, given the problems after the price drop) and Canadians wouldn't take it (well, some probably will but they'd probably bale out of their contract before it ended).

Oh woe is me/us.
 
SpaceJello said:
Have you EVER seen the pricing on unlimited data even now? It's 99.99$ CAN for the blackberry at Rogers.
Click to expand...

There's an unlimited data plan at Rogers? since when? The best plan I see is 500MB, and that's $210/month! Excluding voice!

With regards to the iPod touch, not sure why we're getting screwed here in Canada. Unless those shipped to the US were all just ordered before ours - I think most everyone's order # is W3083XXXX - people haven't been pasting enough of them to see if they were ordered before mine. :)

Sep 5, 2007 at 02:17 PM PDT - Order number W30838XXX

Not yet shipped
IPOD TOUCH 16G-CAN
Ships by: Sep 28
Delivers by: Oct 2 - Oct 5
 
I am definitely not an Apple apologist. I think they screw up on a regular basis actually (and have since 1986 when I started using them).

The lack of iPhone in Canada is partially due to basic economics (smaller market), but I think it is more due to Rogers, imho.

Rogers has the ONLY GSM network in Canada. Bell and Telus are CDMA. Fido is owned by Rogers.

Rogers is making money hand over fist with insanely high data plans right now. Why would they cut that to bring in the iPhone? To us the iPhone is something special. To Rogers I am sure it is just another phone. They know their competition can't bring it in on their networks, so they aren't really losing anything by not having it. People that need that type of device will remain stuck with the smartphones Rogers currently offers, at the extortion pricing they currently charge. Apple isn't going to agree to high data plans anytime soon, so it is a stalemate.

I wouldn't hope for an iPhone in Canada anytime soon, unless you hack it.
 
I feel the pain with you guys here up north.

Just got back from Best Buy and the Apple rep (yes, Apple has invaded Best Buys here in Toronto complete with their own new section in the store) said they already have SKU's but couldn't tell me if they have them in the warehouse or not. Bummer!
 
With respect to Rogers rates, keep in mind the area potentially covered is very large with relatively (compared to the US) low population density, and 1/10th the total population. It is easy to imagine how providing cellular network coverage may be more costly, and that perhaps $/MB should not be 1:1 with other markets.

Saying this, more competition in Canada would be great.
 
Scottyk9 said:
With respect to Rogers rates, keep in mind the area potentially covered is very large with relatively (compared to the US) low population density, and 1/10th the total population. It is easy to imagine how providing cellular network coverage may be more costly, and that perhaps $/MB should not be 1:1 with other markets.

Saying this, more competition in Canada would be great.
Click to expand...

I live in a country the size of the US, the population of New York City, and UMTS and/or HSDPA coverage in all major cities, with much much cheaper data plans than Canada. It's not a demographic issue over there, it's pure greed.
 
James L said:
Rogers is making money hand over fist with insanely high data plans right now. Why would they cut that to bring in the iPhone? To us the iPhone is something special. To Rogers I am sure it is just another phone. They know their competition can't bring it in on their networks, so they aren't really losing anything by not having it. People that need that type of device will remain stuck with the smartphones Rogers currently offers, at the extortion pricing they currently charge. Apple isn't going to agree to high data plans anytime soon, so it is a stalemate.
Click to expand...

I don't know, I think the high prices limit the data plans to business people for the most part. If Rogers could offer an unlimited data plan for a reasonable price, and bundle it with the iPhone, I think they could attract more customers. Whether the increased userbase would make up for the price difference though, I can't really say. I've got to think a bunch of people on an unlimited flat rate data plan has got to generate more revenue than a fraction of the users on an outrageously overpriced data plan, though.
 
PygmySurfer said:
I don't know, I think the high prices limit the data plans to business people for the most part. If Rogers could offer an unlimited data plan for a reasonable price, and bundle it with the iPhone, I think they could attract more customers. Whether the increased userbase would make up for the price difference though, I can't really say. I've got to think a bunch of people on an unlimited flat rate data plan has got to generate more revenue than a fraction of the users on an outrageously overpriced data plan, though.
Click to expand...

I respectfully disagree.

Many people need data plans in this day and age.

All of the data plans out there currently in Canada screw the consumer.

People are stuck going with one of them out necessity.

My opinion is Rogers has no need to change their pricing scheme. The industry is price fixed, if you will, and all the companies are profiting hand over fist from it.

I'm pretty sure Fido even had an unlimited plan in the past, and it was axed in favour of the current pricing scheme.

So, in order for Apple & Rogers to sign an agreement Rogers would have to slash their prices big time for an unlimited plan.... reducing income. Secondly, they would have to give Apple a share of its revenue on those new iPhone plans... further reducing revenue.

Or, they keep it the same with their GSM monopoly and continue screwing the consumer.

I would love to be proven wrong, but I am not hopeful.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back