iPhone invades Canada

Rogers Communications Inc., the largest carrier in Canada with 7.3 million subscribers, said today it will offer Apple Inc.’s iPhone to its customers later this year.
Rogers has about 37% of Canada’s approximately 20 million wireless subscribers and just reported robust profits, lower churn and an increase in ARPU, with a surge in data revenue.
For Rogers, which emphasized its efforts to continue “strong growth,” the news may be important. But the relatively modest size of the Canadian market echoed the last two iPhone launches in Austria and Ireland.
Details on timing and device and service pricing at Rogers remain to be announced. Rogers’ demurral had a familiar tone.
“We can’t tell you any more about it right now, but stay tuned,” said Ted Rogers, CEO at the carrier, in a prepared statement.
But in the context of Apple’s planned expansion to international markets, Canada resembles another baby step, after the iPhone’s blockbuster launch at AT&T Mobility in the United States last year. The American carrier, with more than 71 million subscribers, has so far been the engine propelling Apple towards its goal of 10 million units by year’s end.
Apple’s second, third and fourth steps were also fairly prodigious strides, as Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile in Germany, the U.K.’s 02, and France Telecom’s Orange launched the device late last year.
In contrast, Apple’s fifth and sixth international markets — 02 Ireland (1.6 million subscribers) and T-Mobile in Austria (2 million subscribers) — were decidedly minor incremental additions.
Earlier this month, Germany’s T-Mobile cut the price on its iPhone offering, leading to speculation on whether the device was selling as briskly in Europe as anticipated.
In fact, first-quarter market share analysis by Strategy Analytics last week reflected that Apple’s share of the global handset market slid from 0.7% to 0.6%, as device shipments slumped to 1.7 million in the first quarter from 2.3 million in the fourth quarter — greater than the typical seasonal, first-quarter letdown.
The company’s goal of 10 million is based on a kindred goal of capturing 1% of annual handset shipment volumes of about 1 billion per year in the iPhone’s 18 months on the market. (That’s June 29, 2007 to Dec. 31, 2008.)
The numbers had analysts questioning whether Apple will have to adjust its business model for the most attractive international markets, including China, where operators have stated that sharing data revenue is not an acceptable condition.
And the iPhone has yet to enter the hot Asia-Pacific region, according to Ben Wood, analyst at CCS Insights.
“Other operators appear to have decided that Apple’s contractual terms (including the sharing of resulting data revenue) are not attractive,” Wood said last week. “(We) believe Apple needs to rethink its approach. … Apple’s secretive and U.S.-centric approach to conceiving the iPhone has resulted in some missteps in its marketing strategy.”