Rogers issues fresh denials on iPhones

Tuesday » October 30 » 2007

Rogers issues fresh denials on iPhones

Geoff Martin

Monday, October 29, 2007

Rogers spokepeople say the ad that has caused the latest round of confusion about a Canadian iPhone debut is a fake.
Sorry Canada, despite many rumours to the contrary, there's still no official word on when the iPhone might be making its long-awaited debut north of the border.
After a leaked Molson contest inadvertently set the Internet ablaze last week with reports of an alleged Canadian debut for a Rogers-run version of Apple's iPhone, a fresh round of denials is being issued by Rogers today on another rumour, with the company again insisting they have no announcements on the debut of the much-hyped gadget in Canada.
Over the weekend, several blogs picked up the story of an ad being circulated that appeared to show the iPhone was slated to arrive in Canada December 7 - along with a whopping minimum three-year Rogers wireless plan - with a price tag of $499.
But on Monday, Rogers spokesperson Odette Coleman issued the following statement via e-mail:
"The ad ... was not produced by Rogers. Nothing further to announce on iPhone."
If the statement was a terse one, it could be that Rogers' communications department is growing weary of the now nearly constant speculation about the Canadian debut of the iPhone, which made a giant splash with media and consumers during its U.S. launch in June.
Just last week, Molson posted the rules for a Quebec-only contest on its website, which specified that an iPhone running on the Rogers network and with a retail value of $800 was going to be offered as a prize in a Molson Dry contest beginning in January.
Molson later issued a firm statement denying any links between Rogers and the iPhone, and blamed it on a mix-up with their ad agency before eventually pulling the contest from its website.
Earlier in October, a blogger reported that a Holt Renfrew insider had whispered to him that the iPhone was coming to the store in as little as two weeks with a price tag of $800. The story was widely circulated, but turned out to be a fabrication.
More than 1.3 million iPhones have been sold to date in the United States, where an 8 GB model retails for US$399. The iPhone has since been made available in some parts of Europe, but thanks to a host of reasons -- including Canada's prohibitively high data rates -- it has not been made available here.
Some consumers have obtained hacked versions of the iPhone that will run on Rogers' GSM network, but neither Apple nor Rogers officially endorse their use in Canada, and Apple has already stated that anyone who hacks their phone to run on a network other than AT&T's will void their warranty.
In the U.S. the phone is being offered with plans that vary between US$60 and $100 per month with AT&T, but in Canada it's been speculated that thanks to the absence of unlimited data plans, the data-hungry iPhone could cost its law-bending users up to $700 each month, much more than the value of the device itself.