A Canadian iPhone Dream

Wouldn’t it be awesome if Rogers prepared its stores for an onslaught on July 11th, and the news agencies made sure they sent a reporter to the busiest, most central store, and nobody showed up to buy the iPhone? The news reports would be so much more interesting than the same old lines snaking for blocks, shelves empty, dozens of staff running amok story we’ve seen for other Apple launches.

At the end of the day, my civic duty comes before my selfish desire. I won’t be buying an iPhone next week. I’m a bit heartbroken, but it’s the only decision I can live with. After all, they’ll still be around the following week, or whenever Rogers makes me want to sign a binding contract with them.

(It’s very, very good news that Bell has just announced a wicked inexpensive unlimited data plan for a Samsung phone to compete with iPhone. If it isn’t important to Rogers to, you know, attract and keep customers, perhaps it will be important to them to compete with one of the few rival cell carriers out there.)

UPDATE (8th July): Looks like Apple is going out of its way to distance itself from Rogers, and—by design or in consequence—squeeze Rogers painfully. I wonder if it will entice Rogers to change its offerings. I also wonder if Canadians will end up screwed in the end, either by lack of product if Rogers comes through, or by Rogers changing for the worse instead of for the better—say, by ditching the iPhone altogether.