iPhone in Canada (upgrade program, Apple Pay, News)

[RoboCop001]

I think this is going to be a slight rant haha.

I was just reading a couple of articles regarding the iPhone upgrade program coming to Canada, and it seems all the carriers hate it because it's not going through them.

Incredibly annoying. Why can't they just offer better plans to attract and keep customers? That should be their selling point, not the phone. That way it won't even matter where the customer buys the phone.

And something about TD Bank making its own payment system lol. I wonder what's taking the banks so long to support Apple Pay? Might be that. Or the fees? Though I understood the fees to be negligible?

I hope at least they can get News here not too long from now. Though Flipboard is pretty great. Just curious to see what News will offer.

 

[DeusInvictus7]

The Upgrade Program will probably still come to Canada eventually. You're just buying the phone unlocked through Apple over time rather than going on contract with a carrier. No real difference when compared to buying a phone outright from Apple and then activating it on a Bring Your Own Device plan with any of the carriers.

Apple Pay has been rumoured for a November launch, but who knows when it will actually come to Canada. I feel like a lot of the banks in Canada aren't going to really like Apple Pay, mainly because almost all of them have their own version of mobile payments, in some form or another.

News is accessible if you change your region to United States in the settings. That's what I've been doing to access it. Although after using it a while, I still think Flipboard is a better curator of most of the topics. Apple News is still pretty new, so maybe that will change in the future.

 

[RoboCop001]

The Upgrade Program will probably still come to Canada eventually. You're just buying the phone unlocked through Apple over time rather than going on contract with a carrier. No real difference when compared to buying a phone outright from Apple and then activating it on a Bring Your Own Device plan with any of the carriers.

Apple Pay has been rumoured for a November launch, but who knows when it will actually come to Canada. I feel like a lot of the banks in Canada aren't going to really like Apple Pay, mainly because almost all of them have their own version of mobile payments, in some form or another.

News is accessible if you change your region to United States in the settings. That's what I've been doing to access it. Although after using it a while, I still think Flipboard is a better curator of most of the topics. Apple News is still pretty new, so maybe that will change in the future.

Yeah that's why I find it annoying that the carriers seem to be against the upgrade program. Wouldn't it be easier for the carriers to support it rather than subsidizing a phone? I guess they want people to buy phones through them as locked. Heh, shame they can't just offer plans that are enticing instead of locking you in with little choice of a plan.

As for Apple Pay, I wonder if the banks own payment system (which I'm guessing they each have their own) is going to be more widespread than AP, I'm thinking because it would also work on Android. But would it even work on iPhone? They wouldn't be able to use, for example, the TD app to access the NFC to do a payment, right?

 

[DeusInvictus7]

Carriers like to have customers with as high of a bill as possible, so yeah...they probably don't want BYOD plans as often as possible. They'd rather get the subsidy on the phone and have a higher plan for a customer.

You're right though, as of right now, apps can't access the NFC chip in the iPhone. So outside of Apple Pay, there wouldn't be another system that would work. (Here's hoping Apple opens up the NFC chip to developers for things like that)