Apparently, Rogers wireless will not be subsidizing the cost of the iPhone. This basically means that whether you buy the phone on a 3-year contract, or on a 1-year contract, it will cost the same. This is can be viewed as good news or bad news. The good, Rogers will not be adding in any extra costs (aside form currency conversion) for the Canadian version of the iPhone. The bad news is that those who sign up for a multi-year contract will not be receiving any benefits. Rogers will NOT be helping with the costs of the iPhone.
If all of this is accurate, Apple’s reasoning for keeping iPhone prices high might be a hint hat they will be introducing more products based on the same technology (touchscreen iPod). Prices of these standalone devices would be harder to justify if they were compared to discounted/subsidized iPhone prices.
-iPhoneNews Team
Technorati Tags: iPhone, Rogers
June 6th, 2007 at 10:51 am
Can’t say I am surprised at all, this would be typical of apple. I wonder if Rogers will have subsidized plans being iphone specific as further enticement if they can’t sub the cell itself.
June 13th, 2007 at 12:32 pm
i already have a cell phone, but i think this one is nice because of convenient web browsing.
February 13th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
That is great news. Now you won’t be locked in to a stupid plan and you can go on a month to month. Subsidized phones are usually crap anyway
March 25th, 2008 at 11:03 am
well.. this is a reply to username “apple”.. you are required to go on a contract to activate the phone… just like in the states
April 28th, 2008 at 7:23 pm
Good news,
this means the phone will most likely not be locked with Rogers (like Apple is testing in Italy). I hopefully can stay with Fido, provided they offer a data plan like Rogers will for the iPhone.
June 9th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
Best best is do what I did. Buy iphone in US. -> Unlock -> Subscribe to Rogers with their “cheapest” phone on 3 year plan (phone $0 -> $99) , sell their phone on ebay without SIM card -> Insert SIM into iphone, enjoy your monthly service plan, add “UNLIMITED on device browsing” from Rogers on your plan (Works great for ALL iphone internet features like browsing, mail, VPN etc) for only $7.00/month (Forget their DATA plan, big money grab that does the same thing as the Unlimited on device browsing plan) -> Total of all of the above -> total monthly appx -> $C65.00 tax in.
July 11th, 2008 at 5:11 pm
FYI-
@ ALL- The iPhone with Rogers and Fido is for 3yr terms only.
@ Spike- Also, for Grey market phones (US iPhones)…..2G and 3G iPhones are not eligible for the iPhone voice and data plans. All phones that are not in the Rogers system (Canadian IMEI’s) will not be able to add any data and voice plans….they are blocked….sorry ;(
July 11th, 2008 at 5:18 pm
As for subsidy?….There is only 3 yr terms, so you can not compare to a 1 or 2 yr term costs cause there aren’t any.
Apple does not discount thier products….period.
January 9th, 2009 at 1:38 pm
Apple doesnt discount their products period???
In Jan 2009 Future Shop had a deal on for $35 a month for the iphone and $149 for the 8GB iphone and $249 for the 16GB model…thats much cheaper then before…
* 5PM Early Eve. Calling Option
* 50 Bonus Minutes
* 300 Weekday Minutes
* Unl. Local Calls 3 Mths
* Unlimited Eve/Wknd Minutes
Additional Services
* Partial Detail Billing
* Call Forward/Trans.Pay Per Use
* Data Service Plan 500MB
Additional Charges**
* 911 Emergency Svc Access Fee - $0.50 - Monthly
* System Access Fee - $6.95 - Monthly - What is this?
* Saskatchewan Gov’t 911 Fee - $0.38 - Monthly
I remember when the iphone first came out it was $600 for the iphone and much more per month $60 a month at least, with 500mb estimated to cost somebody $1600 or something, while this $35 plan plus fees maybe a lighter data plan the cheaper price for the phone helps some, its certainly better then it was.
I know I’ll be cursing Rogers for 3 years till its paid out, especially in the final years where you just know something better will be done. But hopefully will enjoy a bit of surfing and added functionality that the iphone offers on the go now. Sure video will be on the phone as opposed to just photo bigger phone, etc, and cheaper data rates the longer you wait I’m sure. But right now $35 is what Sasktel was wonting, actually they want more.
I was going to buy just a simple ipod and carry around a pay as you go phone or a $35 a month cell phone. When I saw the iphone at that same price point I figured why not buy the iphone. My complaint is that I cant seem to see the minutes used or data used, so I will be checking my online Rogers bill frequently to avoid a major disaster.
I said goodbye to sasktel and make calls at home though my high speed internet provider. I guess if I wanted to use Rogers unlimited at home on my high speed, I’d have to subscribe to their talkspot thing for $15 more a month. The Future shop salesmen told me I could call or surf at home on my high speed wireless for free. The surfing works, but the calling doesnt, best as I can tell so far.
I found a truphone app with low calling fees, that or Fring/Skype with a very laggy call using my highspeed. Basically, I’ll just add a few dollars to Truephone and call using my high speed at home long distance to wherever I need to call.
For the iphone I’ll download apps and movies from my home high speed and use the USB port to move it over from my desktop computer rather then trying to download at a park somewhere remotely.
The sales rep said most people only use 100mb a month data, so I’m hopefull mine wont use much either. I know one person who spams my email with huge attachments all the time so for them I have it defaulting to the trash whereby I will pull them out on my desktop to read. It really slows down hotmail anyways.
As for SMS I can use Gmail to send people messages or I suppose the SMS function which would likely charge more. I think my yahoo or Gmail would just count towards my 500mb. I know I once sent out 2500 emails and that took 30mb in total, so I would assume I could text message to my hearts content, as long as I dont surf a huge amount.
So it seems you cant see the minute by minute usage in Canada yet with rogers or the data use, I’ll just have to check the monthly bill and see how it goes.
It does appear that they will start charging 35 cents a minute for anything over the 300 minutes, so I’ll have to be careful not to go over that and if I do start using Skype or Truphone with the 500mb data side to place calls. If it gets too bad I’ll just buy a pay as you go phone, but I know even they eat up a $20 card in no time.
Had I bought an iphone on the first day and paid $600 for it, now I can own my ipod touch $230 and iphone $250 (16GB)for less! Nice to have the extra devide for playing games for the extra battery power. The camera will come in very usefull for the iphone. I bought the 16gb in case apples new snow leopard works with the iphone, I figure it will take at least 8GB to fit.
Total per month about $43 plus tax I assume for Canada rogers iphone. So its certainly better and I guess thats because the Q4 iphone sales have dropped off.