i want the one with the extra gees

The iphone 4G finally arrived in Canada this week and I found myself in line to buy one outright from the Apple store.

Why buy one outright?

That was the question the Rogers sales person asked me as I tried to get my new phone activated today since their entire system was down yesterday. There are two main reasons why consumers should consider this

1) You don’t have to extend your current contract by three years. I don’t want to be trapped in a contract for another three years – especially one that may limit my ability to buy a new phone next year

2) Buying your iphone directly from Apple outright means it’s unlocked – so you can take your iphone to another network if you wish, or you can buy a pay as you go SIM card when you’re travelling in other countries to save big $$$ on roaming fees.  This is exactly my plan as I travel to China and Thailand in a few weeks.

According to an Apple employee at Yorkdale, of the 500 or so people in line yesterday morning by 6:30am, around 50% were buying the iphones outright.

You would think that that on the third try (and three years later) Rogers would figure out how to handle the volume of activation requests, but once again they could not.  Bell and Telus had no such problems yesterday, but unfortunately due to the issues with Rogers the average customer was waiting 45 minutes to an hour to activate which had a brutal impact on the lineup to buy one.

I spent five hours in line waiting before I gave up. Lucky for me, my good friend Dave Shen stayed in line and two hours after I left he picked one up for me.

First impressions

I love the new industrial design and i’ve had no issues with reception or discoloration of the screen. The updated camera is outstanding and the display is crisp. I haven’t tried the video talking feature yet – but I will next week as the balance of my geeky friends finally pick one up.

I love the glass on the front and back – but the downside is that now you’re cleaning both sides of the phone instead of just the screen.

With more Android phones coming to the market as well this Fall + a new lineup of blackberries, it’s going to be a great year for mobile in Canada.

47% of new phone purchases in Canada in Q3 of last year were for smartphones – which was nearly double what it was in Q2. With 55% of Canadians looking to upgrade in the next 6 months, I’m predicting that with all the great choices on the market we’ll see 2/3 of new purchases being smartphones.

Brands who are now in planning for 2011 are missing out on a huge opportunity if mobile is still not part of the mix.