iPhone News Updated

iPhone to cost at least $60 per month

Gadget geeks got a glimpse Friday of just how much it’s going to cost to use Apple Inc.’s iPhone, set to be unleashed in the Canadian marketplace July 11, as Rogers Wireless revealed its pricing plans for the hotly anticipated device.

Rogers is offering up four voice-and-data combo packages for the iPhone 3G, ranging in price from $60 per month to an eye-popping $115 a month, all requiring a three-year contract.

Pricing includes unlimited Wi-Fi access at all Rogers and Fido hotspots, the company said. Caller ID will cost an extra $15 to $20 per month, depending on the package.

The price on the phone — touted as being twice as fast as the first iPhone launched last year — is $199 for the eight-gigabyte model or $299 for the 16-gigabyte version.

Kelvin Gan, who’s thinking about buying a new iPhone next month, said Rogers’ priciest plan is what most avid web surfers would likely require in order to enjoy full functionality of the new iPhone.

“But $115 is a pretty steep price for the plan,” he said.

“And the $60 one isn’t a very good data plan, either, from what I’m hearing.” Gan branded the price of the packages unreasonable, especially when compared with similar iPhone 3G plans in the U.S., which can be had at a fraction of the cost.

However, he noted Canadian consumers have little choice but to pay the fat package price if they want the new iPhone, due to a lack of competition here in the wireless world.

“I know quite a few friends that are getting ready to buy an iPhone just because of the novelty of it and I don’t know if they really understand the amount of money they’ll be paying every month,” he said.

For $115 a month, Rogers is offering 800 minutes of voice calling, 300 outgoing text messages, and 2 gigabytes of data transmission — an amount equal to more than one million text e-mails, 16,000 web pages, or 7,000 photo attachments, the company said.

Rogers’ $60-per-month service includes 150 minutes of voice time with unlimited evenings and weekends, allowance for 75 outgoing text messages, and, as with all plans, unlimited incoming text messages and voice mail.

Customers on the $60 plan also receive 400 megabytes of data, which will allow users to transmit up to 200,000 text e-mails, 3,100 web pages, or 1,360 photo attachments.

Rogers called the package prices highly competitive, but Naheed Nenshi, an instructor at Mount Royal College’s Bissett School of Business, begged to differ.

U.S. carrier AT&T, for instance, requires only a two-year contract for the iPhone 3G, and its basic contract costs about $70 — or $10 more per month than Rogers’ lowest-price package — and it includes unlimited data, he said.

Nenshi had other issues with the Rogers packages as well, in the end deducing, “in the international scheme of things, this is not a very competitive plan.” Nonetheless, Nenshi said he expects Rogers will do very well with the new iPhone.

Rogers is the only provider using the GSM (Global System for Mobile) network — the standard the iPhone runs on.

“They’re the only ones who could sell the iPhone in Canada, so they pretty much have got carte blanche to set their own pricing,” he said.

Eamon Hoey of Hoey Associates Management Consultants Inc. doesn’t like that the iPhone is being touted as the next big thing.

“The iPhone, which is supposed to be the greatest thing since sliced bread, is old news everywhere else,” Hoey said.

The fact the iPhone is being introduced in Canada one-and-a-half years after it was introduced in the U.S. is indicative of how slow wireless carriers here are to introduce new technology to the network, he said.

“This is nothing magic, this is just pure socking-it to consumers once more,” Hoey said.

But Rogers spokeswoman Liz Hamilton said consumers are really enthusiastic about the new iPhone.

Hamilton countered criticism of the plans, saying even Rogers’ $60 plan allows users to use the full functionality of the phone “and enjoy it as it’s meant to be enjoyed.” “Our iPhone plans will more than accommodate the vast majority of customers,” she said.

As to the U.S.-Canada price differential, Hamilton said all carriers have a different approach to pricing strategy and design. For Rogers, the iPhone is a unique device that is going to have unique, high-value plans, she said.

“It’s a heavily subsidized device, and this is a highly competitive price. That’s the business model of devices in Canada. We’re no different than other Canadian carriers that use a subsidy model, and in doing that we sign our customers up to a longer term contract,” she said.

[Thanks: http://www.canada.com]