Rogers to Buy $150 Million in iPhones for Canada

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Rogers president Nadir Mohammed said the iPhone 3G has been a huge success in Canada; the day Rogers said it would carry the phone, sales of other devices "slammed on the brakes." Rogers is now buying $150 million in iPhones to keep up with demand.

According to a report by Electronista, Rogers has committed to buying $150 million worth of iPhones from Apple to feed Canadian iPhonemania.

During a phone call to discuss the company's latest quarterly results, Rogers president Nadir Mohammed said sales of other phones were virtually non-existant the day the iPhone 3G was announced.

Furthermore, a week after the iPhone 3G launched in Canada, Rogers and Nokia had to drop the N95 8GB sticker price nearly in half (to $200 under contract) in an effort to help stimulate sales of other devices.

Mohammed said the company was actually surprised the iPhone 3G came to Canada when it did, telling Electronista, "We didn't anticipate that we would launch that device under any model this year."

Rogers says the up-front discount for the iPhone 3G for consumers is the largest in the company's history, but higher revenue is also expected as cellphone users sign on to data and voice plans.

Canadians looking to get an iPhone 3G should expect to pay about $100 per month to get a decent plan. Calls to Rogers by DigitalJournal.com show this amount will get you the following features:

• Data: The current promotion with Rogers (ending Aug. 31) gets you 6GB of data transfer per month, which is more than enough for every type of user ($30/month)

• Voice package: 250 minutes/month, free evenings & weekends (starting at 9 p.m.) and calling five of your "favourite" friends an unlimited number of times ($35/month)

• Extra: Visual voicemail, caller ID, WhoCalled and 2,500 text messages per month ($15/month)

When you add tax, system access fees and the 911 charge, you should expect to fork out about $98.81 per month. So from Rogers' perspective, this type of plan will earn the company about $3,600 per iPhone user over the three-year term.

Mohammed said Rogers is now buying $150 million worth of iPhones to keep up with demand, and it will buy more from Apple as necessary.