Apple Canadawill begin shipping its newest iPhone model in Canada on Sept. 21 as part of the company’s fastest rollout plan in its history.
The big three wireless carriers in Canada, Telus Corp., Bell Canada and Rogers Communications Ltd., announced that pre-orders for the new iPhone 5 were rolling in at a staggering rate.
According to MobileSyrup.com, Telus reported increased sales by “orders of magnitude over previous years.” The company credited the “excellence” of its pre-order system for at least part of the surge.
Bell, not to be outdone, said that interest in the iPhone 5 had been so strong it had to close down its pre-orders. As far as it was concerned, its customers were drawn to “the country’s largest LTE network and unique services like our leading Mobile TV offering.”
There weren’t a lot of surprises at Apple Inc. under-wraps launch event last week with an as-anticipated iPhone launch and preview of the new iOS 6 operating system, along with upgrades to Apple’s line of music products.
For the most part, we’re looking at incremental improvements, nothing revolutionary. The common refrain: “It’s the best iPhone/iPod/iPod Touch we’ve ever made.”
In terms of details, the iPhone 5 (it did get a number, unlike the new iPad) is all aluminum and glass, thinner at 7.6 mm, and lighter at 112 grams. The four-inch screen makes the phone taller, not wider, and almost brings it into a widescreen aspect ratio.Its new “Lightning” connector is smaller than in the past. Onboard cameras remain more or less the same as the 4s, though a new Panorama mode produces pictures of up to 28 megapixels from the 8-MP sensor.
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On the hardware side, what’s under the hood may be the most significant improvement. Apple says the new A6 processor is twice as fast as the A5 it replaces (which gets handed down to the iPod Touch) and has twice the graphics-handling power. Battery life is eight hours talk, 10 hours browsing on WiFi.Of course, it’s an LTE phone, with a single radio for talk and data. This was no surprise, and in fact Samsung was reported to have already filed suit over LTE use before the iPhone 5 had even launched.Apple will be taking preorders of the iPhone 5 starting Sept. 14, and will begin shipping Sept. 21 in the U.S. and Canada — the fastest rollout of an iPhone n the company’s history, according to CEO Tim Cook. U.S. contract-based pricing will be $199 for the 16GB version, $299 for the 32GB version, and $399 for the 64GB version, with the existing 4S dropping to $99. In Canada, the iPhone 5 will be available through Rogers, Bell, Telus, Fido and Virgin.
With files from Brian Bloom