Apple did something very crule yesterday while updating the Canadian Apple Store - They put a photo of an Apple iPhone on the store’s main page with a sticky note on it saying “We are updating the store, check back at 6pm PDT”. Using the iPhone photo instead of the regular “sticky note” graphic falsely hinted that the iPhone would be available for Canadians to purchase.
The iPhone, however, is not currently available for Canadians to purchase from the Apple store nor is it available from Rogers Wireless, Canada’s GSM phone carrier. Rogers spokespersons are unable to provide information about when the iPhone will be avilable in Canada. Some analysts have speculated as early as the end of July while others say sometime in the Fall of 2007.
It has not yet been confirmed whether or not it is possible to purchase an iPhone in the United States, return to Canada, and insert your Roger’s sim card into the phone to get functionality. There have been some reports that this will not work due to proprietary activation that needs to be done by AT&T in order to make many features of the device work. iPhoneNews.ca will be following this story very closely for our Canadian readers and try to get an accurate answer as to when Canadians can buy the iPhone and have it work with Rogers Wireless.
July 4th, 2007 at 9:11 am
I think the reason that it showed the iPhone image on the site is because they were updating the look of the Canada store, but I’m really not sure.
July 8th, 2007 at 2:20 pm
I got an iphone and hooked it up with AT&T, when I got home, in T.O I tried putting my Rogers SIM from the Blackberry 8300 and it did not read the sim. Although I was still able to use the ipod functions on the phone.
July 8th, 2007 at 2:23 pm
That is interesting to note Adrian; I know a lot of Canadians have talked about just wanting to use the iPhone as an iPod/video Player + WiFi device. Does the WiFi still work without the AT&T sim?
How much did it cost you to setup the phone with AT&T?
July 9th, 2007 at 2:07 pm
It does not work w/o the AT&T sim. I tried with my Rogers sim, and it gave me an error message. It did not cost anything to actually set up the phone only the monthly fee, which is approximately 50.00 usd. All the features on the phone works except for the phone as AT&T will not allow it to roam in Canada, unless I commit to a 2 year contract, something I am not willing to do at the moment.
July 9th, 2007 at 3:46 pm
Thanks for the info, maybe I will mention some of this in the next article as it is valuable information for Canadians.