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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Canada says hello to iPhone 4

Apple lovers line up for new devices

By: Ciara Byrne

Posted: 07/31/2010 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

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New iPhone 4 a hot commodity, despite reported problems. (CHRISTOPHER PIKE / POSTMEDIA NEWS)

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James Wang waits in a long line in front of the Apple Store in Polo Park Shopping Centre Friday to get his own iPhone 4. (JOE.BRYKSA@FREEPRESS.MB.CA )

TORONTO -- Undaunted by reports of signal problems, hundreds of techie faithful in Canada flocked Friday to buy the new iPhone 4, lured in part by the newfound freedom to be selective in choosing their iPhone's wireless provider.

For the first time, consumers were able to buy an unlocked iPhone without a contract, which means they will be able to shop around with other carriers to find the best deal.

That would have saved Dani Winters a major headache.

The 22-year-old was at the front of a long line outside the Apple Store in the Toronto Eaton Centre after waiting 19 hours since the night before. Winters was laughing and joking with staff as he eagerly awaited entry into the store.

But once inside, he became furious as it appeared for a few moments that all his time spent in line had been for naught.

His service provider seemed to be having trouble connecting his iPhone 4 to the network. And so he sat, arms crossed, for more than an hour during the extended wait for his beloved new toy.

"It was just pure craziness, and kind of a little bit killed the spirit, but in the end I got my iPhone," said a smiling Winters, as he waved the new gadget in the air, showing it off to the throngs of media waiting outside the store.

Winters' struggle highlights why some will choose to eschew the traditional wireless contract, which customers can do with the iPhone 4 -- something they haven't been able to do before. People in Winnipeg wanting to buy the new phone began to gather outside the Polo Park Shopping Centre -- home to the city's only Apple Store -- starting Friday at 1 a.m.

"There were probably about 15 people there," mall marketing director Sandra Hagenaars said Friday.

Hagenaars said by 6 a.m., when the mall let people in an hour before the doors normally open, there were 240 people waiting in a line that stretched to the corner of the Sear's store.

By noon, there was still a lineup outside the Apple Store.

While the contract-free phone will attract the truly tech-savvy, average Canadians won't jump to buy the unlocked phone, a telecommunications expert said, because they've become accustomed to buying phones at a subsidized cost on contract.

The typical deals for iPhones have hovered around the $200 range with a two- to three-year contract, depending on the amount of memory the phone offers. The 16-gigabyte iPhone 4 model retails at $659 before taxes and the 32-GB phone is $779.

"Unfortunately for Canadians, we've become so used to buying subsidized phones under contract that we don't appreciate the true costs of a leading edge smartphone," Carmi Levy, a telecom analyst from London, Ont., said in a phone interview.

While consumers get an immediate break on the costs when they purchase a phone with a plan, it's actually cheaper in the end to buy the phone outright, Levy said.

"If you add up the overall costs of ownership over two to three years, it might be higher than if you'd simply bought the phone yourself and shopped around for a different carrier."

-- The Canadian Press, with file from the Winnipeg Free Press

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 31, 2010 B5

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