iPhone finally arrives in Canada

Say it ain’t so Ted Say it ain’t so!

After waiting for over a year while our American counterparts drooled over it, Ted Rogers announced on April 29 that Rogers would bring it back sometime this year. It hasn’t been officially announced when or how much it will cost, but the techies have been waiting for this for a long time. Part of the delay is rumored to have been caused by Apple’s pending release of a newer and faster Apple iPhone 3g (note that 3g allows for faster data but does not affect calls). Data speeds and packets have long been a pain point for Rogers, who often dislikes the unlimited data that Steve Jobs and Steve want. Rogers has long had very expensive data plans and with a data-oriented phone like the iPhone that has made onboarding difficult.

But Rogers has also had time to wait as the only operator for now capable of carrying the iPhone. But as customers grow increasingly impatient and unlocked black market iPhones become more popular, now was the time for Rogers to join.

Apple has already faced an uphill struggle as the iPhone name was previously registered as a trademark by another Toronto-based telecommunications company Comcave. But that was soon fixed.

So be happy Canadians, we’ll soon have the coveted iPhone. The iPhone first arrived in the United States in June 2007 and the lineups for it were huge. Its slick touchscreen interface made it a hit with the techno crowd. The biggest advantage that the iPhone has is its data capacity. Data usage on the iPhone is believed to be 30 times higher than on any other phone. With your Safari web browser, full HTML web browsing is easy. So imagine being able to watch those YouTube videos on your phone in amazing clarity and color. Or get your email (yahoo or gmail) and view those Excel files or PDFs without being in front of your desktop, with full sync with your Microsoft products. Blackberry users can already do a lot of this, but there is no doubt that this will give them some stiff competition. A 2.0 megapixel camera and full image display make this a very fun phone.

However, it has its downside; the headphones are not unlike the ones you find with the iPod but of course with a microphone. So it’s hard to use like a normal phone held against your ear. There’s a 3.5mm headphone jack, and of course, Bluetooth is always an option. Of course, Apple’s lack of a decent battery is still a problem with this phone and many people in the US had to replace it within the first few months of use. It is integrated in a similar way to the iPod, so replacement is not easy. But there is an external battery available after market. There is also no place for a memory card, but it comes with 16 GB. The iPhone comes with a SIM card that is only activated through iTunes, so you can’t put in another SIM card when you travel abroad. Force you to use your Rogers SIM card while traveling, racking up high roaming fees when calling.

But even the drawbacks have done little to nothing to stifle the popularity of the iPhone, within 30 hours of being on sale in the United States, over 270,000 were sold and large numbers were also seen in Germany and the United Kingdom when it was released. it launched there, so it’s going to be nothing but popular when it comes to Canada whenever possible.