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The news burning up the twittersphere today is that Bell and Telus are both revealed to be launching the Apple iPhone in Canada, as early as next month.

Neither Bell nor Telus would confirm that they would add the iPhone to their lineups. Apple also declined to comment. But people familiar with the matter said the two carriers will announce a working partnership with Apple as early as Tuesday or Wednesday and begin selling the device in time for the launch of their new network next month.

This is pretty epic news and a huge win for Canadians. Not for the sake of the iPhone, which is a perfectly excellent phone, but because it means the HSPA competitive war is now on. Far more than the coming new entrants (though they won’t hurt either) the fact that all three big telcos are now going toe-to-toe in the once Rogers-only universe of GSM can only be good news for the rest of us. In fact, Canada is the only market we can think of where 3 three carriers are offering the speedy fruit-themed widget. We just now need to see what the plans will be.

One also wonders if supplies of 3GS’s at Rogers outlets will also magically improve real quick?

link: Bell, Telus to launch iPhone next month

Coming soon on WirelessNorth.ca: Dear Bell and Telus, please just kiss and makeout and get it over with already.

UPDATE: It appears that triple-carrier iPhone is becoming the norm in various markets including the UK and France. At WirelessNorth.ca we for one welcome this new comoditization of high-end smart phones.

Contributor Tim Tang from MaRS has been digging around the apple iTunes store data looking for tips to pass on to aspiring app developers. Tim writes to Wirelessnorth:

The Apple App Store. What should developers know about it? How competitive is the landscape? How should developers price their app? Conversion rate from free app to paid app?

In the past 8 months, I have crawled iTunes, Mobclix, 148Apps, comScore, Techcrunch, and many developer sites. The average price across the store is USD $2.47. The conversion rate from fee app to paid app is typically 0.25%-2%, and one should not consider quitting their day job unless their app is at least in the 99.9 percentile.

Along the way, I have come across many interesting trends. For instance, app pricings are dropping and accelerating due to the downward market pressure from the supply of free apps. Or, despite downward pricing pressure, the expected value of the App Store has increased more than 60% in 3 months since March. However, it’s important to separate the merely interesting from the truly important.

What is truly important, and the more difficult question to answer, is how to improve monetisation and increase revenue per app. In my research, I found two actionable recommendations for App Store developers. Both recommendations resonate with bigger issues in Canada and around the world today: how to become more competitive in the knowledge economy and how to commercialise digital media assets? The answer, as Jacek Utko has eloquently put it on TED, is design.

Major App Store findings and a few pointers from Apple can be found in my report, A Guide to the Apple App Store, which I am sharing with the community. The iPhone and the App Store are sold in more than 80 countries. Yet, limited market intelligence is available for developers to make informed decisions. The purpose of my report is to gather and interpolate data in order to help developers establish both achievable milestones and expectations.

The first recommendation for developers is to design for social, outgoing, inter-connected consumers. iTunes data show this customer base not only has a bigger budget for mobile software, but also they are more willing to try new apps from a range of categories. The second recommendation for developers is to think long term about renewal revenue from the get-go and design apps as delivery platforms for new content on a fixed release schedule.

iPhone OS 3.0 and In-App Purchase will enable on-demand-subscription revenue model that put Freemium business models in the spotlight. For more information, click here for the report and here for the iTunes data I compiled.

LINK: Download the full dataset here

We know a few readers of WirelessNorth.ca have put together an iPhone app or two. Any tips to pass on?

UPDATE: Link fixed

UPDATE2: see also this excellent series by cannuck iPhone developers ENDLOOP: How to start, build, launch and market your first iPhone App in 28 days

We’ve once wondered if this whole white-hot field of mobile experience design only got itself invented originally by frustrated Europeans simply trying work-around to the UI limitations of nokia smart phones.

You see, back in the olden days (like 24 months ago), it was the mighty nokia that ruled the global smartphone market. Nokia n-series phones had by far the most features (wifi, 3g, storage) and the best cameras and video cameras etc. But still, hobbled as they were by 9 digit keypads and a notionally open, but still crufty, symbian OS, of that good stuff was sometimes hard to make the best of.

And then RIM came along and took their classic “well-duh” usefulness of a querty keyboard and threw in a cute and handy little trackball. Was that so hard? Apple meanwhile showed how intuitive mobile experience could be with just a big-ass touch screen and a handful of brilliantly simple multi-touch gestures.

Interaction design, problem pretty much solved right?

You would have though the smart n-series engineers would have seen this coming.

Well maybe they did.

There’s big news out from those whacky finns today. The “real” nokia iphone-killer has stepped forward. And unlike the early, lackluster, reviews of RIMs stormy foray into ipodicide, the nokia looks to press all the right buttons. At least… on paper.

- big touchscreen
- AND slide out querty keyboard (kinda like android)
- A real camera
- Lots of storage
- A real webrowser build on webkit (RIM are you listening?)
- And… drumroll… flash support in the browser

A few caveats of course. No doubt the n97 will still be hilariously expensive once it reaches our shores. Flash support has been the main gripe, if not holy grail of iphone developers. But we at WirelessNorth.ca are still skeptical. We’re convinced there’s more than likely there’s a good reason flash doesn’t work on mobiles. You have to remember that flash was always designed to rely heavily on host cpu to render it’s fairly math-intensive vector-based animation instructions. So “runs flash” vs “runs flash at all usefully faster than a slide show without demolishing your battery life” remains to be seen.

Nonethess thanks to our long time friend Moore’s Law, the full convergence of mobile and desktop web experiences will happen eventually. Today at least is another step towards that reality.

One other thing is for certain. We ain’t seen nothing yet when it comes to smartphones. The iphone/smartphone avalanche is just beginning, and this snow storm going to be driving some tremendous change and growth in the industry in the next few years.

Pssst someone better go tell the network engineers…

# Friends of WirelessNorth.ca James Eberhardt and Gabe Sawhney, collectively echo mobile have let us know they will be running an iPhone Developers class December 7th – December 8th at the Rich Media Institute. The course is targeted at flash and action script developers looking to get started in iPhone development. James and Gabe have also donated a 2 for 1 voucher for the course as a raffle at tonight’s WirelessNorth.ca mobile meetup. thanks guys!

# Apple has just announced they will be touring the world with their own developer workshops for the iPhone (sounds like a fun job). They are stopping in Toronto December 4th, which at the moment, is the only venue in North America not yet sold out. While there’s still spots, I’d recommend signing up for both!

# Free tickets for WirelessNorth.ca’s mobile/iPhone developers meetup tonight are now sold out. A few sponsor tickets remain (all funds raised go directly to the nacho, wifi and free beer budget).

According to big red, hardly anybody (1.2% of subscribers) used more than a 1GB of data on their iPhone in their first 4 weeks of usage, with 95% using less than 500MB and 91.2% using less than 200MB. Rogers is keen to share the stats as a prelude to “right-sizing” their new lineup of data plans once the current $30/6GB special offer runs out.

These numbers are of course a little disingenuous. You would expect these numbers to climb over time as users adapt their behavior to the new capabilities of the 3G devices and as more useful applications are released to the iPhone store. One also wonders how much higher those figures would be if iPhone supported video or, if the iPhone had any reasonable battery life with 3G actually turned on… limitations that other/future devices will not always have.

So the bad news is Rogers is dropping their caps and raising pricing relative to the 30/6GB deal. The good news is, not by that much and consumers should see data bills that are a LOT more predictable, and the evil days of punitive $50/Megabyte pricing are over.

A Rogers email rep emailed us last night to say:

We’re extending the $30 6GB 3G smartphone plan until the end of September (for the Bold mostly but all 3G smartphones can add it). And we looked at that iPhone usage and thought once the promotion ends, we’d create new plans that are better suited to what we know customers use. These October 1 plans are for data devices consumer pricing (so BlackBerry, smartphones, air cards) and I note, Rogers is one of the few carriers in the world that permit tethering. So a preview of new pricing that goes into effect October 1: $15 for 2MB (essentially an email plan); $25 for 500 MB; $30 for 1GB; $60 for 3GB and $80 for 8GB

On top of this Rogers is introducing a $100 cap for all data bill overage [this is a defacto $100 unlimited plan then? -ed] and free SMS alerts to inform you when you are approaching your limits. Presumably this cap does not apply to roaming data use however, which is still a big scary gap in Rogers service plans for anyone who travels.

Nonetheless, predictable in territory data pricing is very good. Tethering is good. And hopefully all of this pricing will come down further with more competition in 2009.

This new openness as well as the current stop-gap $30/6GB plan is a good sign from Rogers. It’s a sign they are getting better at PR and being responsive to consumer outcry at some of their past practices.

Feels like should be giving our carriers such a hard time more often :)

Can we move on to extortionate roaming charges, long distance rates and per-minute billing then?

Apple insider [link: Spat with Rogers leaves Canadian Apple stores without iPhones] has lent some credence to the rumours zinging around the internet everywhere yesterday about Apple censuring Rogers over their iPhone plans. The whole thing sounds rather odd.

Did Apple not know about the Rogers contracts before they were announced? Was it actually news that Canada has the longest contracts and some of the highest mobile pricing in the developed world (developing world, other worlds, the mars rover probably has a better data and minutes plan than you do etc.)? With an exclusive on the phone and new competition on horizon, are we really surprised that Rogers is trying to milk the opportunity to the maximum.

There is a possibility that Apple was taken aback by the unexpectedly harsh publicity. From a lofty distance it is easy to underestimate the passionate pent up frustrations of long-beleaguered Canadian mobile consumers. It surprises us all the time.

Do you think the petition really worked? On the other hand, we feel like there is something else going on here. Apple has never really been known for championing “low pricing for the everyman”. Apple has always expected you to pay a premium to enjoy the privilege of using their goods.

The simpler explanation would be that production of the new device has yet to ramp up and that shortages may be expected globally while Apple’s contract manufacturers struggle to keep up with the initial flush of demand. Do you believe this is really a spat between Apple and Rogers? Let us know in the comments.

We’ve all been there before, you have 3 months left in your cell phone contract after years of being a customer of one of the carriers, and now you need out. Each carrier in Canada has a different get-out-of-jail fee to break their contracts and Rogers has always been one of the most expensive, but never any more egregious than you’d expect.

Well, we’ve all been complaining that Rogers’ pricing hasn’t changed much with their new iPhone plans, but now I have proof that they have changed.

Instead of a smaller fee like 200$ to break up, Rogers now locks you in for 220$ a MONTH, or $1100, whichever is more. The price can then, on a 3-year contract, easily go up as high as $7,770.

You may be thinking “I’ll never need to pay that”, but you never know. 36 months is a long time to be locked in to a contract, and with penalties like this, you have to think about things like job security before you buy that shiny new Apple iPhone.

This is not normal behaviour, the iPhone is now not only expensive, but completely unattractive. Why? Lets recap:

1. You have to sign a 3-year contract
2. It is a device designed for massive amounts of bandwidth, but you are limited to low data usage caps
3. There are high overage fees if you use more data than Rogers allows
4. You have to take the voice plan they offer with the phone, you can’t choose another Rogers voice plan
5. You have to pay an insane amount for Caller ID
6. System Access fee is alive and well
7. You have to pay $1100 cash if you life changes in any significant way in the next 3 years, that goes up to as high as $7,770 if you have more than 5 months remaining on your contract.

What about you? Are you going to buckle under the pressure and go ahead and get one? Is the temptation too much? I know I have passed the point of no return on this puppy. I’ll stick with my 1st-Gen iPhone and use a few Wifi Hotspots.

How many of those 20,000+ people will really boycott the iPhone? How many signed the petition, but still won’t be able to resist the lure of the amazing iPhone?

[UPDATE July2/08: Rogers has now corrected their cancellation disclaimers which now read "The ECF is the greater of (ii) $100 or (iii) $20 per month remaining in the service agreement, to a maximum of $400 (plus applicable taxes), and applies on each line in the plan that is terminated." The new terms are far better than the nonsensical figures previously published. However, at 3 years in length, it is worth remembering that Rogers contracts (similar to other Canadian Carriers) are still 50% to 100% longer than every other jurisdiction on the planet offering the iphone.

Flushed with hope, WirelessNorth.ca recently inquired of Rogers whether our regular blackberry bill of last month was also just another typo of tragicomic proportions. But apparently not. - ED]

Thanks to everyone who wrote in. It’s worth mentioning that a few (by few we mean 20,000 and counting) densizens have gathered to express their opinions on Rogers’ new iPhone pricing. They don’t like it. And this story has legs, having been picked up by fortune/CNN 15,000 Canadians petition for iPhone rate relief and the globe’s report on business. RuinedIphone is taking the noble if possibly quixotic approach of hoping for lower tariff by asking Steve and Ted nicely. The petition site is also somewhere between a blend of savvy populist rabble rousing and a clever way to reap donation money. We wish we’d thought of it.

Note that wirelessnorth.ca always welcomes your unsolicited EMT and paypal donations to editor@wirelessnorth.ca.

related post and discussion thread: Rogers iPhone pricing released (for real this time)

Rogers as officially released pricing for the iPhone on their network. Those that got excited for the last pricing leak may be disappointed to learn that it was found out to be false/hoax or rather a copy paste of ATT&T pricing. Here is the real scoop:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                              Sent      Incoming
                                              Text      Text       Visual
    Price   Voice                    Data     Messages  messages   Voicemail
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------
    $60 /   150 minutes + unlimited  400 MB   75        Unlimited  Unlimited
    month   Evening and Weekend
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------
    $75 /   300 minutes + unlimited  750 MB   100       Unlimited  Unlimited
    month   Evening and Weekend
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------
    $100 /  600 minutes + unlimited  1 GB     200       Unlimited  Unlimited
    month   Evening and Weekend
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------
    $115 /  800 minutes + unlimited  2 GB     300       Unlimited  Unlimited
    month   Evening and Weekend
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------

So the basic plan will cost plus $15/month for caller ID, plus 6.95 system access fee, probably a $35 activation fee for new subscribers. And $199 for the phone. Overage charges on iPhone data are unclear. The is no unlimited data option.

The phone does come with free wifi at Rogers/fido hotpots at least which is nice at least.

Call it $81.95 a month at minimum with caller ID. Or $3,182 plus GST/PST over the live over the 3 year contract.

For comparison, AT&T will be offering unlimited data on the iPhone for $30/month with a voice plan and a two year contract.

O2 in the UK will be offering the phone with unlimited data and 75min/8 month contracts for $60 a month or a free iphone with a $90 1500min/18month contract.

UPDATE: Overage charges are $30 ($0.50/MB) for the first 60MB in overage and $0.03/MB after that. Official iphone pricing page on Rogers.com.

ISupply has released the results of their tear down analysis of the new 3G iphone. Apparently the component and assembly costs of the device is $179. Forgetting for a second the hundreds of millions Apple likely has and will spend on the design, development and marketing of the device… that’s pretty cheap. So want to know what the things are made of? (they’re not just full of stars apparently)

So there you have the ingredients. Though I don’t think that just the list and a trusty ikea alen key is going to help you put one together.

Anyhow, here is the real kicker:

“At a hardware BOM and manufacturing cost of $173, the new iPhone is significantly less expensive to produce than the first-generation product, despite major improvements in the product’s functionality and unique usability, due to the addition of 3G communications,” said Dr. Jagdish Rebello, director and principal analyst for iSuppli. “The original 8Gbyte iPhone carried a cost of $226 after component price reductions, giving the new product a 23 percent hardware cost reduction due to component price declines.”

Imagine, for a second, a world where great warehouses in shenzhen churn out pre-designed Android devices (which would basically the same components) or devices with the newly-free S60 OS or cheap-ish windows mobile. Then imagine the churning out of such devices a year from now 23% cheaper and with a few more features, then 23% cheaper than that another year later… all hitting the shelves of Walmart, Canadacomputers or 7eleven at nominal markup.

This (thank you Moore’s law) is another reason why the next several years are going to be a very interesting time to be in mobile.