Tech
Rogers Slashes iPhone Data Rates
After two weeks of taking in on the chin from readers of this site as well as irate Canadians from around the web, Rogers has finally succumbed to the criticism and dropped the data rates for the new 3G iPhone. The new rate, available only as a promotion for those who sign up before Aug. 31, gives iPhone subscribers the option of purchasing a 6-gigabyte data plan for $30 per month in addition to any voice plan. Previously, $30 would only have provided for 300 megabytes.
In an article on the Toronto Star web site, John Boynton, the senior vice-president and chief marketing officer of Rogers Wireless, claimed the promotional offer is in response to customer concerns.
"We're responding to our customers that gave us a lot of feedback," he said, adding that rumours about a spat with Apple over pricing or a limited supply of iPhones were false.
More details via this news release.
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Good breakdown at ars:
-Add that to the mix, and Rogers' latest move looks even more like a plan to squeeze a bit more money out of customers until all of this blows over, rather than an attempt to actually fix what consumers see as the problems with its data allowances.-
http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2008/07/09/rogers-tries-to-placate-users-with-new-iphone-data-promotion
Seems the high end data plan even goes up in price.
Bet that little fact will be hard to find in the press release.
point out any flaws ya see while everyone is still motivated.
now is the time to act.
(lol, if only people would rise up for my situation instead of data rates on an iphone, the world may seem like a better place :P lol )
To answer the akswun's question, Canadians get screwed on price because there is an acceptance of high prices on everything and a thin veneer of truth to justify it. The same problem occurred in Europe a few years ago, where despite the presence of supposedly competitive electronics stores, and the fact that everything came from Asia anyways, there were huge price markups on electronics compared to North America.
Toronto residents pay higher sales taxes than any American, the highest transit fares on the continent, twice as much to fly to New York as people in Buffalo, 30% more for beer, higher costs on consumer goods than any American not living in Alaska or Hawaii... why should cellphone plans be any different? "Oh, the market is smaller, and too spread out, and the dollar is 2 cents weaker, and we need to translate those kilobytes into French when sending them to the iPhone...."
The only way to break this sort of gouging is to either encourage more competition (i.e. let the Americans in) or refuse to buy the overpriced goods. Best of luck.
Rogers is making AT&T look good and that is very hard to do.
*sigh*
Rogers offers $30 data plan up to August 31 + Apple indicates they've slashed iPhone distribution to Canada = a small number of people actually benefiting from the new plan
All other suckers pay full rate prices when phones actually start showing up in September.
Nice. Rogers is marketing genius defined.