The big news today in Canada is that both Telus and Bell are getting the iPhone in November. This mornings official announcements set off a whirlwind of speculation on what this will mean for Canadian fans of the iPhone. Here’s my take …
What we know for sure is Canadians now have a lot more choices when it comes to the iPhone. All three major carriers will be carrying the Apple smartphone, and all three will be fighting for your dollar. The price of the iPhone shouldn’t change but we might see some competition on the length of contracts. Right now the norm is three years – but don’t be surprised if one, maybe even two or all three drop that to two years – much like in the U.S.
What I think will happen is both Telus and Bell will offer some very intriguing voice/data plans at launch. The goal of course will be to sign up people who’ve been on the fence and resign current customers – but the real battle will be to get Rogers users to jump ship. I’m guessing at the same time Rogers will offer some better deals as well to try to prevent an exodus. I think this will be the key. The iPhone is a big hit right now and the three carriers know the smartphone will bring in a lot of money. How do you get that money? You toffer the best deal possible to get the most number of consumers to sign with you. That should equal a lot of competition amongst Rogers, Bell and Telus.
It’s easy to look to the past and say other phones haven’t generated any competition – but none have had the popularity of the iPhone. Funny, in the end it may be Apple that helps Canadians start to feel relief from high wireless costs. We can only hope.
