Yesterday I was contacted by Nestor Arellano from ITBusiness.ca to give my thoughts about what it would take to get Canadian Consumers to really latch on to the iPhone for an upcoming article. The resulting article can be read here (make sure to read all three pages... their links are not so clear).

The chat we had, and the resulting discussion that the article creates got me thinking about mobile data, and how it is used in Canada.

Currently, of my non-technology industry acquaintances, I can honestly say that not a single one uses any sort of data related service on their current cellular phones, except for SMS and MMS services. Of those in the tech industry, most are not using a smartphone, but those who are have for the most part, company funded BlackBerry devices, and they do not access the mobile web.

Why do I think this is? Lack of a really functional web experience or other software that they would find useful, as well as the exorbitant costs of a data plan.

The iPhone, and the media coverage it has and will receive, will help to eliminate the problem of regular every day users not having a need for data access on their phones, as at the very least most people would find the weather application and Google Maps handy!

The often criticized Apple TV has been a device which I have loved since day one. Recently Apple rolled out a feature to Canadian owners of the device, (something which has been available in the US for some time) the ability to rent movies (some are even available in High Definition) or buy movies right from your TV.

Now this is not just a service which is available on the Apple TV, you can also do use it from within iTunes if you want to watch a movie on your computer, iPod Touch or iPhone (which at this point has to be unlocked to function in Canada for another month!).

Tonight I rented my first movie on the Apple TV. My daughter Emily had an idea that we should watch a movie tonight. As she headed off to her room to grab a DVD that one or all of us had seen many times before I thought perhaps tonight would be a good night to test some technology. So I fired up the Shaw Digital Cable Box and the Apple TV and set out in search of a Video on Demand movie.

The thing that struck me at first was the speed and simplicity with which one could browse through a group of movie posters on the Apple TV, and see all of the movies that are available in a genre, in this case the Kids section. It was so much simpler and more enjoyable to view a big grid of movie posters, than the text based movie list on Shaw Video on Demand.

Not as exciting as the iPhone 3G announcement today, but possibly a great update to the often criticized .mac service, is the news of Apple's new MobileMe service. I am not sure about the name, as it kind of reminds me of Windows ME, however the Apple Marketing Department has a little more experience with this sort of thing than I do.

It looks as though .mac has been totally reworked to create an experience for the consumer user which rivals Microsoft's Exchange Server, or what most companies run their email, calendaring and contact lists from.

From the Apple site

You might have a Mac at home, a PC at work, and an iPhone or iPod touch. The challenge is keeping multiple devices always in sync. Enterprises can use a server like Exchange. For everyone else, now there's MobileMe.

MobileMe works with the applications you know well. Microsoft Outlook on a PC. Mail, Address Book, and iCal on a Mac. And Mail, Contacts, and Calendar on your iPhone or iPod touch.

Access and manage your email, contacts, calendar, photos, and files at me.com. All with amazing applications that are so feature-rich and easy to use, you may end up preferring them to your regular desktop applications.

Pricing in Canada looks to be set at $109 per year for an individual account with 20GB of storage, with a family account available for $159 for 40GB of storage for up to 4 users.

At the Apple World Wide Developer's Conference in San Francisco, Steve Jobs today confirmed that the rumors of a 3G iPhone are true.

Notable additions are the inclusion of GPS, a flush mounted headphone jack, 8GB and 16GB storage sizes, and the 16GB iPhone is now available in both black and white.

Steve jobs had a map which showed the iPhone coming to Canada as one of the 70 countries to get the 3G iPhone in 2008. Jobs mentioned that the 8GB phone would not cost more than $199 anywhere in the world, so I would assume Roger's would have to honor these prices, however at this time pricing on the Apple Store and on Roger's site has not been announced.

Rogers and Fido are listed on the "where to buy" pages for the iPhone, so likely this means Canada will be one of the launch countries on July 11th, 2008.

I wonder how many of my clients will also be looking for integration to Exchange on Launch day!

More info should be out in the days to follow.

UPDATE: Rogers confirms pricing of $199 and $299 for the two models of the 3G iPhone, in this press release. Unfortunately that pricing is said to be on a 3 year plan, which has yet to be released.