Rogers commits to purchasing $150M in iPhones from Apple
Rogers Wireless said Tuesday it wasn't expecting the opportunity to market the iPhone to its Canadian customers this year, but jumped at Apple's sudden offer with a commitment to purchase at least $150 million worth of the handsets.
Company president Nadir Mohammed made the revelation during a conference call covering Rogers' fiscal second quarter results for the three-month period ended June 30, in which the carrier said it earned C$301 million, or 47 cents per share.
"We didn't anticipate that we would launch that device under any model this year," he said.
Mohammed noted that demand for his firm's usual array of handsets "slammed on the brakes" on June 9th, the same day Rogers announced plans to begin selling the Apple phone the following month.
Subscriber interest in the iPhone eventually led Rogers and Nokia to half the price of Nokia's similarly-equipped 8GB N95 handset to match the 8GB iPhone's $200 price tag in a bid to re-stimulate demand.
Mohammed also acknowledged that the discount Rogers is offering on each iPhone is the largest in the company's history. Still, Apple's approach is said to be "highly, highly attractive" given that the carrier expects the iPhone's higher average revenue per user to more than make up for its initial subsidy investment.
The executive said non disclosure agreements with Apple prevent him from revealing the number of subscribers who switched to the carrier to obtain an iPhone compared to those who simply upgraded. He did, however, reveal that Rogers' agreement with Apple included an up-front commitment to purchase $150 million worth of the new 3G handsets.
Assuming an average non-subsidzed price of $450 per handset, Rogers would have agreed to purchase approximately 333,000 of the new iPhones.
The carrier said it's prepared to expand upon that momentary commitment as necessary.
Company president Nadir Mohammed made the revelation during a conference call covering Rogers' fiscal second quarter results for the three-month period ended June 30, in which the carrier said it earned C$301 million, or 47 cents per share.
"We didn't anticipate that we would launch that device under any model this year," he said.
Mohammed noted that demand for his firm's usual array of handsets "slammed on the brakes" on June 9th, the same day Rogers announced plans to begin selling the Apple phone the following month.
Subscriber interest in the iPhone eventually led Rogers and Nokia to half the price of Nokia's similarly-equipped 8GB N95 handset to match the 8GB iPhone's $200 price tag in a bid to re-stimulate demand.
Mohammed also acknowledged that the discount Rogers is offering on each iPhone is the largest in the company's history. Still, Apple's approach is said to be "highly, highly attractive" given that the carrier expects the iPhone's higher average revenue per user to more than make up for its initial subsidy investment.
The executive said non disclosure agreements with Apple prevent him from revealing the number of subscribers who switched to the carrier to obtain an iPhone compared to those who simply upgraded. He did, however, reveal that Rogers' agreement with Apple included an up-front commitment to purchase $150 million worth of the new 3G handsets.
Assuming an average non-subsidzed price of $450 per handset, Rogers would have agreed to purchase approximately 333,000 of the new iPhones.
The carrier said it's prepared to expand upon that momentary commitment as necessary.
Comments
...The carrier said it's prepared to expanded upon that momentary commitment as necessary....
"expand".
On topic, it seems Rogers is happy because they are absolutely raping the customers on data fees?
If so 300,000 new iPhones, each say will run up $200 in data fees in a few months since the start of it, that equals $60 million in data fees alone.
Yup, no wonder they are happy. Their purchase of $150 million worth of handsets breaks even within a year if you include call, tariff, data fees, etc. etc.
Just as a very rough estimate. Remember I am finance n00b.
"expand".
On topic, it seems Rogers is happy because they are absolutely raping the customers on data fees?
If so 300,000 new iPhones, each say will run up $200 in data fees in a few months since the start of it, that equals $60 million in data fees alone.
Yup, no wonder they are happy. Their purchase of $150 million worth of handsets breaks even within a year if you include call, tariff, data fees, etc. etc.
Just as a very rough estimate. Remember I am finance n00b.
Well, they are better than they were when they first announced their iPhone packages. They changed their tune pretty quickly and allowed more a al carte offerings. You can keep your old voice plan (or get another) and add on data at $30/6GB. You can add VVM as a stand alone option or add in a Value Pack that includes 2500 SMS and a couple other minor items.
$30/6GB is damn near unlimited for me. Sure, it would be a fool that bought into the lies about 'normal' and 'expected' data usage to justify their initial offering, but they have certainly improved. Assuming for most, that 6GB is the same as unlimited, I think I got as good a deal as those in the US are getting.
$56/month gets me:
6GB data, Unlimited Incoming, unlimited N/E starting at 7PM, 250 daytime minutes, 100 Canadian LD minutes, Visual Voicemail and Call Display. As always in Canada, we also pay the same-as-theft System Access Fee ($7), 911 fee ($0.50) and tax on all. But, in terms of raw pricing, this seems comparable to carriers in other countries.
But they are still going to make a killing off of every dollar they invest in buying iPhones.
"Halve the price", not "half the price".... FFS!
If we're being anal then FFS ... I assume to mean fix the fing spelling isn't correct. They spelled the word just fine... its the usage that's incorrect. FFU as it were...
On track..
I see this as just another of the many good signs Apple has going for it when it comes to their new cellular product line.
Apple in a time when it was THOUGHT that the MP3 player market was pretty much carved up "by the majors"... ahem.. Apple swoops in with the iPod and snatches up all their lunch money... :
Repeat with the cell phone industry?
Still too early to tell but the signs are certainly looking better than good...
Oh and all the while Apple is slowly but surely nibbling away at Microsofts desktop market share... Gotta love it... No wonder Gates retired...
Dave
I mean RIGHT downtown... blocks from Eaton Centre.
There are 2 large size Rogers retail outlets and 3
small Rogers franchise cellular outlets within 3
blocks radius of me and I've been to every store
to see and "experience" the sales cycle. As of this
past Sat. NO one in the larger stores asked if I
wanted assistance or info on the iPhone I looked at.
And in all stores, I approached a rep and specifically
asked how much they had left in stock and how
many have they actually sold. "Lots" was the common
response, but when pushed to compare to their
regular line-up of phones, well thats a dif. story...
NOT one store was sold out and only one store said
they sold 18 units, but the rest did NOT sell more
than 12 units in the past two weeks... and this in the
busiest areas of Toronto and the whole country !
So, you're full of crap Rogers. You sold more
Blackberry's from those stores than iPhones. I asked.
If you had to guarantee a $150 million iPhone contract
330,000 handsets is a sh*t-load to catch up on.
Enough with the high prices, poor service and lies !!
We're all fed up with your PR BS.
I live right in the heart of downtown Toronto, ON.
I mean RIGHT downtown... blocks from Eaton Centre.
There are 2 large size Rogers retail outlets and 3
small Rogers franchise cellular outlets within 3
blocks radius of me and I've been to every store
to see and "experience" the sales cycle. As of this
past Sat. NO one in the larger stores asked if I
wanted assistance or info on the iPhone I looked at.
And in all stores, I approached a rep and specifically
asked how much they had left in stock and how
many have they actually sold. "Lots" was the common
response, but when pushed to compare to their
regular line-up of phones, well thats a dif. story...
NOT one store was sold out and only one store said
they sold 18 units, but the rest did NOT sell more
than 12 units in the past two weeks... and this in the
busiest areas of Toronto and the whole country !
So, you're full of crap Rogers. You sold more
Blackberry's from those stores than iPhones. I asked.
If you had to guarantee a $150 million iPhone contract
330,000 handsets is a sh*t-load to catch up on.
Enough with the high prices, poor service and lies !!
We're all fed up with your PR BS.
I don't know if any of that adds up. Friends of mine tried Yorkdale, Eaton Centre, etc and all stores are or have been sold out. Most have seen a few replenishments since launch, but none have not sold out at some point. From reading postings at HoFo, this is true of both Fido and Rogers. In Waterloo/Kitchener/Cambridge, every single Fido, Rogers, WirelessWave and TBooth stores were sold out on Launch weekend if not launch day.
Edit: Given the strange formatting of your post, I am guessing you cut and paste from somewhere else. I would suggest going to the original poster and calling BS on them. Any stores that did not sell more than 12 units, probably only received 12 or fewer units, in which case it is a supply problem and not a demand problem.
Edit: Given the strange formatting of your post, I am guessing you cut and paste from somewhere else. I would suggest going to the original poster and calling BS on them.
They just want to plaster their opinion in as many places as possible...
linky (scroll down to the comments section)
----------
I wonder, what were the sales like for the iPhone 3G in Canada? For all the whining, people still pay the high prices because (at the end of the day) the plan is worth more to them than the price they pay -- so really, the prices in Canada are more than fair to anyone willing to pay.
I live right in the heart of downtown Toronto, ON.
I mean RIGHT downtown... blocks from Eaton Centre.
There are 2 large size Rogers retail outlets and 3
small Rogers franchise cellular outlets within 3
blocks radius of me and I've been to every store
to see and "experience" the sales cycle. As of this
past Sat. NO one in the larger stores asked if I
wanted assistance or info on the iPhone I looked at.
And in all stores, I approached a rep and specifically
asked how much they had left in stock and how
many have they actually sold. "Lots" was the common
response, but when pushed to compare to their
regular line-up of phones, well thats a dif. story...
NOT one store was sold out and only one store said
they sold 18 units, but the rest did NOT sell more
than 12 units in the past two weeks... and this in the
busiest areas of Toronto and the whole country !
So, you're full of crap Rogers. You sold more
Blackberry's from those stores than iPhones. I asked.
If you had to guarantee a $150 million iPhone contract
330,000 handsets is a sh*t-load to catch up on.
Enough with the high prices, poor service and lies !!
We're all fed up with your PR BS.
They're selling more in Ottawa than Toronto??? That doesn't make sense.
I think you're numbers are off. The other thing you mention is that their not sold out. While this may be true, it's likely they're sold out of the 16GB version which is the popular version and they have lots of 8GB version, thus they are saying they are not sold out. But in reality they are sold out of the more popular models.
I live right in the heart of downtown Toronto, ON.
I mean RIGHT downtown... blocks from Eaton Centre.
There are 2 large size Rogers retail outlets and 3
small Rogers franchise cellular outlets within 3
blocks radius of me and I've been to every store
to see and "experience" the sales cycle. As of this
past Sat. NO one in the larger stores asked if I
wanted assistance or info on the iPhone I looked at.
And in all stores, I approached a rep and specifically
asked how much they had left in stock and how
many have they actually sold. "Lots" was the common
response, but when pushed to compare to their
regular line-up of phones, well thats a dif. story...
NOT one store was sold out and only one store said
they sold 18 units, but the rest did NOT sell more
than 12 units in the past two weeks... and this in the
busiest areas of Toronto and the whole country !
So, you're full of crap Rogers. You sold more
Blackberry's from those stores than iPhones. I asked.
If you had to guarantee a $150 million iPhone contract
330,000 handsets is a sh*t-load to catch up on.
Enough with the high prices, poor service and lies !!
We're all fed up with your PR BS.
Nice first post. Bet your IP can be traced to Waterloo - RIM must be getting pretty desperate.
$30/6GB is damn near unlimited for me. Sure, it would be a fool that bought into the lies about 'normal' and 'expected' data usage to justify their initial offering, but they have certainly improved. Assuming for most, that 6GB is the same as unlimited, I think I got as good a deal as those in the US are getting.
Ah...but remember, this $30/6gb disappears August 31st...and once again, rates for data plans in Canada become exorbitant.
I'd love to see them extend or simply keep this plan after the deadline, but somehow I think it was simply a gesture to appease the vocal few. It's the masses that will get hosed thinking that data is now cheap and surf at will.
Nice first post. Bet your IP can be traced to Waterloo - RIM must be getting pretty desperate.
My IP can be traced to Waterloo. In fact, since RIM leases some space in our building now, we might even show up with similar IP ranges. No one I have spoken to at RIM seems that desperate. They just see the iPhone as a reason to try harder.
Ah...but remember, this $30/6gb disappears August 31st...and once again, rates for data plans in Canada become exorbitant.
I'd love to see them extend or simply keep this plan after the deadline, but somehow I think it was simply a gesture to appease the vocal few. It's the masses that will get hosed thinking that data is now cheap and surf at will.
True enough. I honestly think they will keep their lower data packages around. As always with Rogers, it will be difficult to know if you are getting a good value because the plans and options will be so confusing and convoluted, but with Bell and Telus going after them with their data plans, Rogers would be foolish to go back to their old rates. The future rates might not be as good as the promo, but I can't imagine they would keep them as bad.
$56/month gets me: 6GB data, …
I took the 6 GB offer. However, from checking my USAGE daily, I am running around 2 to 6 MBs a day. Although I used my iPhone's GPS on the weekend for about 2 hours a day, as well as emailing and another hour surfing upped the usage to nearly 10. Obviously not having Wi-Fi access for the most part was the difference.
I anxiously await my first invoice to get the real usages. But certainly, it doesn't appear that I will be anywhere near 6 GBs.
It would be interesting to hear what others a logging in daily just by checking their Data Usage under General Settings.
Nice first post. Bet your IP can be traced to Waterloo - RIM must be getting pretty desperate.
Well, not that I run around to every store downtown to find out if the phone is selling or not ( I have better things to do to be honest and I don't really care that much either), but just this past weekend, I still saw some signs saying "temporarily out of stock" on a few doors of downtown stores. Not the Eaton Centre or Toronto Life centre ones mind you. I'm sure it's selling fine. They did super well on the first weekend that's for sure. There are still quite a few people I know who plan to buy it but are waiting for different reasons (contract nearly over with another provider, gift, etc..). And let's face it, yes, Rogers tends to rape us with their prices but their limited time offer of 30G/$30 is pretty awesome (for me anyway). Buy it before end of August and you're guaranteed that for 3 years. Add it to a good voice plan (corporate if you have one) and you have a pretty decent deal. What's all the complaining about? This is as good as it'll get in Canada for now. Deal with it. Those who don't bother getting the phone before the limited offer deadline might not even end up requiring or using that much data anyway. They're screwed if they can't get out of their current plan before then but who knows if the deadline might be extended? I dunno.
Nice first post. Bet your IP can be traced to Waterloo - RIM must be getting pretty desperate.
No, it's Toronto as he said. FWIW
NOT one store was sold out and only one store said
they sold 18 units, but the rest did NOT sell more
than 12 units in the past two weeks... and this in the
busiest areas of Toronto and the whole country !
This pretty much lines up with what I've seen for the Rogers and Fido outlets here in Winnipeg. They all have lots of them in stock, and the ones I talked to said it's a slow mover.
Buy it before end of August and you're guaranteed that for 3 years. Add it to a good voice plan (corporate if you have one) and you have a pretty decent deal. What's all the complaining about? This is as good as it'll get in Canada for now. Deal with it. Those who don't bother getting the phone before the limited offer deadline might not even end up requiring or using that much data anyway.
Why even have a deadline for the 6gb/$30?
Plus, what about all those who end up having to buy an iPhone after Aug 31st and missing out on the offer, simply because the phone was not in stock.