Tuesday, July 8, 2008 -- 10:44 a.m. -- on my couch

UPDATE 11:44 a.m. -- strangely, Apple retail stores are no longer listed on the Apple UK site either, although an O2 spokesperson confirmed to me that they would be available there. Interesting. Can't think of any reason why this would happen in the UK other than Apple stores not being equipped in time to sign up customers. I'll see if anything here has changed and keep you all posted.**

**UPDATE2: I've called 4 other Apple stores -- total of 5. Two said that there will be no sales at their stores on Friday -- demo units but sales only at Rogers and Fido. The other 3 said they are still awaiting the most up-to-date information and hope to know more tomorrow. So we'll see what it all means.**

**UPDATE3: Apple did not respond to multiple requests for comment.**

DENIED!

Well, would you look at that ... It could very well be that Rogers didn't just anger consumers with its plans ... it angered Apple.

After unverified reports over the past few days that Apple was shipping stock of the iPhone to Europe to somehow punish Rogers for its pricing plans and the bad PR that resulted, Appleinsider reported first today that Apple stores would not stock iPhones on Friday -- only Rogers and Fido stores.

And sure enough ... now, when you go to "where to buy" at the Apple Canada site, you are presented with just two options, not three. Rogers and Fido. That's it. No Apple store.

Well you know me, I'd never use a story from another source without verification, so I spent 10 minutes on hold this morning with the Apple Store at Eaton Centre in Toronto listening to up and coming Canadian stars on the hold music to get the scoop for myself.

And it's true ... according to an Apple retail representative, you CANNOT purchase an iPhone 3G at any Apple store in Canada on Friday -- only at Rogers and Fido. The rep said that if there are changes to that policy, he is unaware of them and has no indication that it will be changing any time soon.

This is shocking, to be honest. I mean, the lines are at the Apple stores, which, according to the person I talked to, will still have demo units to look at and drool over.

To me this is the same thing as a radio station saying it's the voice of a team and only providing commentary and not the play-by-play.

So ... Rogers ... may I be among the first to congratulate you ... it is clear that you have screwed your customers big time with this one ... for Apple to pull one of ts most-popular products from its own stores on the day of a major worldwide launch shows that it's not playing games. This decision is just beyond comprehension.

On one hand, I understand it. It's like Steve Jobs got mad, slammed his fists on his all white desk (with no drawers and a single button in the middle) and said "PULL IT!!" Now, assuming anger got the best of him, this is not a good thing for the Canadian consumer because they've already been punished enough ... to have to endure high rates and have to wait at a Rogers or Fido store instead of an Apple store is just mean.

And that brings us to the other hand ... it's really unfair for the consumer to take the brunt of this. Maybe it would have been wiser for Apple to pull the phone from Rogers and Fido, but I'm not sure how it could have done that and made a statement.

It's a tough place to be ... Steve could have just left well enough alone, but, for reasons that we may never actually know, he didn't. And now, well, we'll see what it means for the Canadian bottom line.

Oh wow. Folks over in Waterloo must be salivating right now and jumping for joy. This can't be bad news for RIM and the BlackBerry universe.

I wonder ... Is this an Apple ploy to get Rogers to cave and match plans that are more similar to AT&T in the States and O2 in the UK? Maybe. Rogers hasn't been known to back down from what I've seen, but ... I wouldn't be surprised if we saw some changes and updates to the Canadian iPhone plans. We'll see if that changes the sales situation come Friday.

So more information as it comes in.

In the meantime ... please please please do leave comments and share your thoughts.

Thanks for calling.

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Is this just because you have to sign up for a contract with a carrier this time?
This is the same situation as in the UK i.e you cannot get the iPhone from an Apple store, but only from Carphone Warehouse and O2 stores.

SCOTT'S REPLY: Seemingly so, however, as of 3 days ago, there were three logos on the where to buy page on the apple.com/ca site -- Apple store, Rogers and Fido. And today there were 2. So, either the stories are true about the rift or something fell through with the store's ability to offer the phone.

I'm not so sure this is a new thing. They never had Apple Store listed as one of the places to get the iPhone in Canada. It was always just Rogers and Fido Stores.

SCOTT'S REPLY: For a while, there were three things on there. Now there's two. And the stores that I called this morning -- 2 of them -- said that they were going to have them and now they aren't.

I'm pretty sure I only ever saw Rogers and Fido as being the only places to get the iPhone on July 11th in Canada. Could it be that Apple is pissed and is showing their unhappiness towards Rogers? Maybe and I think that's a big maybe... Here's why.

It's very likely that the Apple Stores in Canada are not yet equiped to sign up iPhone customers to either Rogers or Fido, they may also be lacking the training and the staff to do this. Or due to the alleged diverting of shipments that were supposed to come to Canada and are now going to the EU, Apple might have decided to send the stock that the Apple Stores had to Rogers and Fido outlets instead, who are better equiped at activating the iPhones.

Should Apple Stores be able to activate the iPhone? Sure why not but Rogers (Fido) might have asked for exclusivity in that area to avoid potential activation problems and customer billing issues. I think it makes good sense to have those of us (because there will be many) to go directly to Rogers and Fido outlets to get the phone, I know I'd feel a bit more comfortable dealing with a Roger (Fido) rep over an Apple Store rep who could only really help me out with all the wiz-bang features the iPhone has which I can check out on the web. Make sense doesn't it?

As for the rates... well yes I do think they are unfair but as a consumer I have a choice and always have. I can wait it out and see how they tweak the plans later on or stick with my existing phone and plan, just like anyone else. Other than bragging rights Early Adopters always end up paying more, Rogers should be thanking those that do on July 11th ... maybe with a 3 month rebate or something. :)

SCOTT'S REPLY: Very interesting take, Bryan, and thank you. I saw apple, fido and rogers listed on the page just the other day and today I only saw rogers and fido ... so something has definitely changed.

Accordiong to Scott McNulty (via Daring Fireball):

"Looks like this is just a tempest in a teapot. After looking at the iPhone pages for countries where Apple has retails stores (UK, Japan, Italy, and Australia) it looks like you won’t be able to buy an iPhone in any non-US Apple Stores. Everyone can stop freaking out now."

SCOTT'S REPLY: Yeah, I read it, but Canada is one of those places that had 3 spots on its page before today. And now it has two. I believe there's a little more to it than what Scott says.

In a sense this is classic S. Jobs M.O. Take a top-down approach to something that others might leave up to the market. Your essential point, Scott, is that consumers should be able to choose. Steve has taken it upon himself to signal his opinion, consumers be damned. Not that I disagree with him in this case, but not sure this was the reponse I would have expected ... SOMETHING has to be done about these greedy, aloof carriers mired in the status quo.

SCOTT'S REPLY: And while other sites say that what happened with the iPhone in Canada's Apple stores has nothing to do with the rift, I am standing by what I said and I agree with you wholeheartedly -- someone has to look out for the consumer.

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