iPhone 3G Service Plans War

My friends, there's less than a week remaining until the official release of the long-awaited Apple iPhone 3G. If you ask me, I don't think most stores will face iPhone 3G shortages, but that depends a lot on the location and service plans offered. Until we get to the iPhone 3G service plans part, you should also remember that iPhone 3G queues have been started already, although I can't exactly say what those people have in mind (if they really have some sort of a plan, or they are just iPhone geeks without any special purpose). OK, these being said, let's move on to the service plans part, because it seems that Rogers Wireless got "penalized" by Apple(it was the time for that, in my opinion)!

When talking about the iPhone 3G subscription plans available, we have some very nice prices, like in Australia, competitive plans, like in Switzerland, Netherlands, Denmark and Finland, but not limited to them, of course, and some insanely expensive plans. For example, look at Rogers Wireless, Telia Sonera and Netcom. I know this is one of those few occasions when we see Canada, Sweden and Norway together, but there are some things that need to be said. I have no doubt that the market for the iPhone 3G will be much smaller in those last two countries, when compared to Canada, so those prices could have somehow an excuse, since the living standards in there are extremely high, but what about $60 per month in Canada, with only 400MB of data?

Well, this is where the battle starts. Strangely, this is not between Rogers Wireless and some competitor, but between Apple and Rogers. How is that possible? Well, it's all pretty simple - after seeing Rogers Wireless' planned service prices for the upcoming iPhone 3G, and the reactions of their customers, Apple decided to "punish" the Canadian mobile carrier with less iPhone 3G deliveries!

According to Daniel Smith, quoted by AppleInsider, multiple sources, including a person from Rogers, are claiming that a serious amount of planned iPhone 3G deliveries were diverted to Europe. Now, I don't know if we should consider the fact that stores may get as little as 10 to 20 iPhones each for the beginning more than just a rumor, because it seems too close to 0, for me.

For now, Apple and Rogers are still quiet, but over 43,000 potential iPhone buyers have signed this petition against Rogers' prices. What do they say? "Over 43,819 people say NO to Rogers," as you can see on the RuinediPhone page, if you click the link above. Is that good, is that bad? If you ask me, Rogers should definitely lower those prices, but I guess some people may even be happy with them...or not?