An old friend James "Two Sheds" Glave has built Eco Shed™ and he is taking great pains to market it, even renting a rubber gorilla costume (I hope it's rented anyway) for this YouTube commercial below. If you want to a quiet getaway with a really small carbon footprint, then call James. Dancing gorilla optional.

Tagged: carbon footprint, environment, green building, green technology

No Cabbage Patch: Notes on the Rogers iPhone Debacle

Posted by Michael Klassen on July 14, 2008 in Media

One month before the launch of iPhone 3G, Steve Jobs addressed a crowd at the Apple Developers Connection. 30 days later one of the most embarrassing corporate SNAFUs in Canadian history occurred. It is yet to be seen whose head will roll for it.

It is highly unlikely that the company's namesake, founder Ted Rogers, will get the boot. It will more likely be someone listed on the company's Board of Directors page.

How serious the damage has been to Rogers bottom line is yet to be added up. The company's annual projections no doubt factored in strong sales for Apple's iPhone, which Rogers has locked up in an exclusive deal for the Canadian territory.

The day of Jobs announcement I decided to call a Rogers operator (I've been a wireless customer since 1998) to ask about the availability of the iPhone, rates, etc. I was bumrushed by the operator who said they had no info, and to go visit my local Rogers Wireless dealer.

When I visited the store later that day, they also were clued out on the terms. They only knew about the July 11th release date. They were taking deposits ($50) though, and I wound up number five on their list. I found out later that this "waiting list" was spiked by the head office the next day. Fortunately the dealer honoured the names collected on that first day.

What happened next would give you the impression that Rogers were a bunch of beet farmers, not a billion dollar communications service provider.

First there was the ridiculous data and voice packages. The packages themselves were designed for maximum pain, low in talk minutes with costly data usage plans. Howls of public protest ensued, and Rogers relented by offering a short term (expires before Labour Day) bargain data package for $30 per month. The company also clarified that existing talk packages could be retained by current Rogers customers.

This kind of "tweaking" just weeks before a monumental product launch demonstrates a severe corporate incompetence, not the ability to be flexible to consumers as the company tried to spin it.

The hiccups aside, Rogers looked to have saved themselves prior to July 11th. The breathless iPhone fanboys began to camp outside Rogers wireless dealerships. It smacked of Xbox 360 or Tickle Me Elmo sales. My Rogers store even called me at 5pm on July 10th warning me to stay away: "Don't come until Sunday - it's going to be too crazy here."

On the morning of July 11 I rode by another dealer and saw that by 11am there were no line-ups. I decided to visit my store at Oakridge. There were 4 counter sales people doing nothing, and one customer in the store.

Wha' happened?? Rogers computer system crashed. Ooops. Even Rogers Video rental business suffered under the weight of demand created hours earlier in the Eastern time zones.

People who queued for hours, even slept on the sidewalk overnight, were told to go home. No phone activations could be done.

As luck would have it, when I dropped in at noon the system began to work again, albeit VERY sloooowly. It would take FOUR HOURS for the phone activation to occur. I went back to my office, and returned at 4:30pm to pick up my iPhone.

I was the FIRST iPhone sold at that very busy Rogers store ALL DAY and it was almost closing time.

I can't even think of how many millions of dollars Rogers has lost thanks to this series of screw ups. If I was a stockholder I would be just a little annoyed, and looking for answers.

Rogers seems to have a sickness within that is infecting customer relations, their own efficiency, and possibly their bottom line. As one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world, they must evaluate their failure to launch iPhone 3G and take actions to make sure it doesn't happen again. Alternative providers are just waiting for the chance to take Rogers on.

Tagged: apple computer, cell phone data usage, favourite, iphone, rogers wireless

Permalink | Comments (0)

iPhoned

Posted by Michael Klassen on July 11, 2008 in Zeitgeist

Maybe it was the Karma Police that came calling, but Rogers system was so overloaded that many stores across the country could not fill iPhone orders all day today. I was the very first iPhone that left my local Rogers Wireless store today, and I just got it at 4:30pm. I'm still chuckling about it.

I "pre-ordered" my cell phone the day Steve Jobs announced iPhone was coming to Canada last month. Apparently they cut off this system the day after, but were obliged to honour the pre-orders. I walked in today several hours after the store opened, noticing lines had died down considerably by mid-morning.

They explained that the computer system had crashed, and only when I walked in that it was coming back online, albeit very SLOOOOOW. Come back in a few hours, or when we call you.

I went back to work, and noticed my cell phone Sim card no longer worked. Guess they had completed my order (5 hours later). I walked in, bing bam boom, and had my iPhone.

Syncing it now.

Suh-weet.

Tagged: apple computer, iphone, rogers wireless

Permalink | Comments (2)

The Canadian iPhone Conundrum

Posted by Michael Klassen on July 5, 2008 in Soapbox

NEWS FLASH: Rogers caves to complaints, unveils new 3G data rates

I've been watching the online rancor build about Rogers' outrageous voice/data packages linked to the iPhone. The fact is that wireless has been the easiest and best way to bilk extra money from Canadians. We Canucks seem quite content to pay a sh*tload for our little portable talking sticks.

How did we get here? I used to work with a local community television station (which until a territorial agreement was struck between competitor Shaw Cable that effectively split Canada between 2 corporations for all wired TV service) that was run by Rogers. In 1987, I attended an event downtown featuring billionaire Ted Rogers as he announced CanTel, the company which was eventually renamed Rogers Wireless. Hard to believe that it has only been 21 years since wireless phones became the mainstream consumer device we cannot live without today.

[iPhone] is more like an expensive sex toy that you can whip out in public and not have anyone call the cops. Au contraire, you'll attract an audience.

Competitors crept into the market, temporarily knocking Rogers off of its gross market share, and costly talk plans. Minor companies such as Fido arrived in the Canadian marketplace. For a time Rogers even offered "per second" billing before moving back to the more profitable "per minute" billing. Today, Fido is owned by Rogers, and all minor players in the Canadian cellular phone service marketplace are owned by one of three providers: Rogers, Bell, and Telus Mobility.

Canadians, who by and large suffer large monopolies, such as in banking and telecommunications, have had little choice but to accept high fees for products and services when compared to the neighbouring USA, or other markets abroad. Policies used to protect consumers from foreign invaders serve to plump up the profits of a handful of very large corporations.

Fast forward to July 11, 2008, the release date of Apple's innovative iPhone 3G in Canada, the first time this product has been legitimately available north of the 49th parallel. Few technological gadgets have prompted more drooling by adults than the iPhone. It is a indeed the Swiss Army Knife of portable communications. It's more than a phone or a music playing device, it is more like an expensive sex toy that you can whip out in public and not have anyone call the cops. Au contraire, you'll attract an audience.

As a Rogers mobility customer for a decade, I'm utterly torn by their iPhone pricing scam, and I expect the company is aware that this is the case. Right now I have a pretty healthy 500 minutes of monthly talk time that suits my needs, with a modest data package to use Gmail Mobile. My bills are just over $60/monthly including all the hefty taxes. It's not exactly cheap, but I can afford it.

If I get an iPhone, I get a fraction of that talk time for the same price, and an insufficient allotment of data usage. The iPhone's full blown browsing, email and map search capabilities will easily drain even healthy mobile data plans, dumbing down one of the most important applications of the device. You might own a new iPhone, but you don't dare show what it can really do unless you want to own a 2nd mortgage.

Rogers completely underestimated the backlash to their miserly iPhone plans, but they won't back down. Their 2008 profit projections depend upon their monopoly ownership of the rights to sell the iPhone, and Canadians willingness to endure the financial pain required to keep them on.

Inevitably prices will fall, and the groaning will cease. The shame of this is that if we only made innovative communications tools more affordable it would surely make our country a leader in developing technology, and provide a much needed boost to our economic productivity.

UPDATE: Apple allegedly sanctioning Rogers for iPhone rates

Tagged: apple computer, cell phone data usage, iphone

Permalink | Comments (0)

<< Previous Entries

On this page

Life is a bowl of raspberries

How green is my shed?

No Cabbage Patch: Notes on the Rogers iPhone Debacle

iPhoned

The Canadian iPhone Conundrum

Subscribe to this site

Favourite Posts