iPhone decision

Vancouver, BC

Here we are on the eve of the new iPhone 3G launch, and I can imagine that there are a lot of people out there sleeping in the streets waiting to be the first in line to get one. I would say, that in most countries, in most cities, that if you haven’t already ordered one, or are currently waiting in line, you likely won’t get one for at least a week or more. Has this ever happened for a phone before? Has this ever happened on this scale for anything before? Perhaps, but not recently.

That said, us Canadians have some potentially high rates to consider if wanting to buy an iPhone. Rogers, in typical Rogers fashion, has decided to not only charge upwards of $100 or more for the plans, which don’t even include unlimited data, but they are planning to lock people into 3 year contracts.

The UK on the other hand, seems to have it pretty well. For £35 monthly I could get 600 minutes of voice and 500 texts and unlimited data. All of that and only an 18 month contract–half of what we need here. It is almost enough to make you want to move to the UK. Which coincidentally enough, just might happen for me. I don’t really have any details, other than to say it is possible. But I would certainly be there long enough to fulfill one of these contracts.

So to answer everyone who has been asking, no I’m not getting an iPhone tomorrow. I want one, bad, but logistics and sanity have kept me from queuing up for the past few days. I will likely not get one in the next few months. If it looks like I’m not heading to the UK, then I will rethink my options, but until then I can wait. In the mean time I will download the iPhone SDK on my new Intel iMac and develop applications and play with them in the iPhone emulator. Perhaps if I make something useful and work related I can convince my company to adopt the iPhone. One can dream.

Written by Colin Bate