Shocker, Iphone is selling in Canada! Rogers jaw drops! | NotebookReview

Seshan Rawrrr!

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Rogers: iPhone "slammed brakes" on rivals
Sales of other phones on Rogers Wireless' network virtually ground to a halt the day of the iPhone 3G announcement in late April, company president Nadir Mohammed said today during a call discussing the company's latest quarterly results. Although the cellular business helped drive Rogers' year-over-year quarterly revenue increase of 11 percent to $2.8 billion without the iPhone on sale, the company executive notes that demand for other devices "slammed on the brakes" the same day as Rogers announced it would launch the Apple device during the summer.

Demand for devices remained cool roughly up until the launch of the iPhone itself, according to the report. Nokia and Rogers significantly halved the N95 8GB's price to $200 on contract less than a week after the iPhone 3G release in a bid to stimulate sales versus the iPhone, which has most of the same hardware features at the same price.

Mohammed also reveals that Rogers was completely taken by surprise with the opportunity to launch the device, regardless of whether it used Apple's original model of sharing monthly revenue or the new device subsidy approach. "We didn't anticipate that we would launch that device under any model this year," he says.

The company nonetheless believes Apple's current approach is "highly, highly attractive" to Rogers. Although the up-front discount on the device is the largest the company has ever had, the higher average revenue per user is expected to more than offset the initial price of the phone as nearly all customers are likely to sign up for a data plan and potentially extra features. Mohammed declines to specifically identify its user behavior, however, and notes that most phones of the class have a "honeymoon period" of between 90 to 120 days where service usage is extremely heavy.

Rogers has committed to buying at least $150 million in iPhones and will spend more as necessary.

The Canadian provider further adds that non-disclosure agreements prevent it from discussing the ratio of customers upgrading versus new additions, but says that it would be "premature" to provide any kind of definite answer. AT&T in the US has said that a significant minority of new iPhone 3G subscribers are conversions from competing networks.

Click to expand...

http://www.electronista.com/articles/08/07/29/rogers.on.iphone.3g.demand/

Well there been some news articles posted about rogers pretty much in shock (though there not saying there in shock) that the Iphone is selling in Canada. It's kinda sad to think that even a company like rogers would of thought that the iphone wouldn't sell, do they think Canadians don't like technology? I can say that we like technology just as much as the US. But then you think that maybe that's why they came out with such ****y iphone plans is because they thought it wasn't going to sell? Well now they are ordering 150 million dollars worth of Iphones. But at the end of August the deal for 6 gb for $30 is over. If they are smart, they will keep that, but if they are not, do they really think the sales will keep up? It's probably people rushing to get it before the deal is over. Well, I don't really know what the point of this is, just me kinda ranting that rogers is dumb. Do you guys have any thoughts?

Seshan, Jul 30, 2008

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Kurat Notebook Consultant

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Like the artical says, Rogers is on the honeymoon right now, just wait till the first of the monthly bills come in and then go to craigslist and see how many are on there, as a matter of fact the Rogers iPhones are starting to show up there right now from people who bought first and used the calculator last, now they want to sell it to buy off the contract, if they drop the 6 gig deal at the end of Aug, I cant see people buying them, I have a feeling the 6 gig will stay, can you imagin a heavy user using this thing with 400 meg package in the U.S along with Rogers ridiculous roaming rates, your bill could end up being thousands technicaly, Rogers do not have to tell anybody how the iPhone sales are going but I really dont think it is that good, but time will tell.
Rogers has always been a scummy company by trying to tell people what they need instead of trying give what people want.
Rogers wont even let you pay for the phone outright at the beginning, they can stick their 3 year contracts.

Kurat, Jul 30, 2008

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Khris Yes I am better than you!

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When I upgraded to the iPhone 3G (I've been using an original unlocked iPhone with Rogers since last October), it actually reduced my monthly cost by about $50. For me it was a no-brainer.....better phone, cheaper monthly bill!

Khris, Jul 30, 2008

#3