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Did Apple Strong Arm Molson on Leaked iPhone Canada Promotion?

Posted October 25, 2007 5:00 AM by Gregory Ng
Categories: News 

imageThere is a low level hum of excitement in Canada as what was originally thought of a s a gaffe from Molson was denied by the beer maker. The hype started when the iPhone was listed on Molson.com as a prize for their latest promotional contest. A Canadian iPhone release date has not been officially announced yet. But that didn’t stop the Canadian iPhone faithful to get excited at the possibility of it coming out in January of 2008.

But the white hot glow of anticipation has been suppressed as Molson removed the iPhone from the contest page on their site and have denied knowing what the actual release date is in Canada.

This begs the question: Did Apple strong arm Molson to plead ignorance? Or did Molson truly commit this blunder? I find it incredibly hard to believe that a company would launch a major contest without having all of their ducks in a row when it came to prizes. having worked on the creation, planning, and execution of these types of programs I know that any company with a lick of respectability, has an army of people in the legal department who wouldn’t allow this to happen by mistake.

Which leads me to believe that if Apple, does indeed plan on releasing the iPhone in Canada in January, 2008, they were pissed that Molson inadvertently announced it before they got the chance.

What do you think Molson’s knowledge is? And what does Rogers (Canada’s wireless provider) have to say about all of this? More to come…

[Via GlobeAndMail]

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Comments

  1. It’s my bet that the iPhone is announced for Canada at Macworld 2008…. especially if it’s 3G

    Posted by Gregory on October 25, 2007 5:49 AM

  2. I think Canada will get the iPhone in January as Molsons had stated on their web site.  It’s very possible we might get a 3G iPhone too.

    MacWorld is always in January… and that’s when the iPhone was first announced last year.  New iPods and iMacs were announced this summer/fall.  That means work stations and laptops will probably be changed this January… and very possibly a 3G iPhone and a new Apple Tv unit. 

    Remember Apple said last January that they are working on rolling out the iPhone to Asia in early 2008.  Canada was not mentioned at all when they talked about the iPhone.  So we fell between the cracks.  Steve Jobs never comes to Canada (at least not publicly).  I’ve been using Mac’s since 1992, and I never remember Steve Jobs announcing new products here.  He will throw in any announcements about Canada with other countries (as a side note) from outside of Canada (like San Francisco).

    As for the roll-out of iPhone.  Apple has to announce what they constitute as Asia, since that is the next place on the list.  Since the iPhone is so heavily connected with iTunes, they can only roll out the iPhone to countries that have iTune stores, I would think.  That means Japan, Australia and New Zealand.  Perhaps Apple might announce some new iTunes stores for Hong Kong, South Korea, and Singapore…. it would be nice if they announced China.  But they have to go to countries with good broadband connections… and I don’t think China has that.  So Asia will most likely be Japan, and an 70% chance of Australia and New Zealand.  I find it really hard to believe that Canada will not get the iPhone before Australia and New Zealand.  That would really be insulting to us.

    Besides… this Molsons news today, (which Molsons later said was an error), only increases the chances of an iPhone for Canada.  Big companies like Molsons Coors don’t usually design web pages with detailed legal jargon regarding contests, and then come out and say “oops… we guessed about the release date for a product two companies are introducing, that technically is not even coming to Canada”.  Contest legal agreements are usually written up by lawyers, so this is saying that even Molsons lawyers got it wrong too.  I don’t think so. 

    January 2008 ties in with MacWorld, the iPhone for Asia, and now this Molsons error.  There is just too much smoke around January… and where you have smoke there’s fire.

    The reason why I’m guessing about a 3G iPhone in January is based on the three quotes/press releases below.  The timing of two of these releases (so close to January is suspicious).  Rogers has spent a lot of money rolling out a new 3G network right across the country, and fully implemented in this month.  They are ready for 3G right now.  It’s very likely they told Apple “don’t come knocking until you have a 3G iPhone”. 

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    -AT&T- “Steve [Jobs] wanted to have ubiquitous coverage for the iPhone, and you have to remember it was two years ago when 3G networks were not everywhere,” Stephenson said. So they went with the slower EDGE network. So does that mean there will be a 3G iPhone soon? “Yes, there will be a 3G device,” is all he would say.
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    -ROGERS -TORONTO, Oct. 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - Rogers today announced the next phase of its 3G high speed wireless network and Vision services in 22 Canadian markets. Earlier this year, Rogers introduced its Vision suite of services in Ontario’s Golden Horseshoe. Rogers is the first and only wireless carrier in North America to offer wireless video calling.

    The Rogers Vision suite of services operates on Rogers’ new High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) network, the fastest wireless network in Canada. HSPA is the latest evolution of GSM, the world-wide standard for mobile wireless communications. This 3G protocol significantly increases download speeds on wireless devices, providing a user experience similar to broadband high-speed services.

    The expansion announced today introduces Rogers Vision services for customers in Greater Vancouver, Kelowna, Victoria, Whistler, Calgary, Edmonton, Fort McMurray, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Regina, Ottawa/Gatineau, Kingston, Sudbury, Barrie, London, Kitchener/Waterloo, Guelph, Windsor, Greater Montreal, Quebec City, Chicoutimi and Trois-Rivieres. Rogers Vision is already available in the Greater Toronto Area, Hamilton/St. Catharines, Burlington/Oakville making this unique suite of services available to 60% of the Canadian population.

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    -BROADCOM -Oct 15, 2007 On Monday, Broadcom announced a single-chip HSPA processor that integrates all the key 3G components; High-speed HSUPA 3G baseband, Multi-Band RF Transceiver, Bluetooth (R) 2.1 w/EDR, FM transceiver Radio, 5 MegaPixel Camera support with 30 fps video and TV Out, and most important to Steve Jobs and Apple: “extremely low POWER”.

    **Broadcom, is a long-time Apple Wi-Fi chip partner alongside its arch competitor Atheros.

    Posted by itunes brian on October 25, 2007 8:12 AM

  3. The iPhone WAS going to come to Canada in January - but now that Molsons screwed up by telling everyone when, Steve will punish the whole country by delaying the release a few extra months grin

    Posted by Todd Thomas on October 25, 2007 9:57 AM

  4. My guess is that it is finally coming too.  For far too long data prices have been oppressively high.  And now that they are starting to finally come down.There are far too many other coincidences pointing to the iPhone coming.

    The most notable is Bell Mobiliy’s release of the “HTC Touch” and their ‘game changing’ pricing structure of $7 a month for unlimited data on the device.

    The “HTC Touch” looks like an iPhone, acts like an iPhone, and now apparently is CHEAPER then an iPhone.

    And the history has been there that when one Canadian Cell company does something, the others all follow suit. I just think that Bell beat Rogers to the punch this time.

    Posted by shawn on December 3, 2007 12:18 AM

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