4GB iPhone sold

Despite rumours the iPhone will soon be available in Canada, I sold my iPhone for $480 last week.

Who cares you ask? Well, it’s an amazingly high price for a smartphone that’s no longer available from Apple. I bought it for roughly US$540 at the end of July from an Apple store in Troy, Michigan - the first weekend it was offered.

The buyer, a guy in his twenties named Norm (from Burlington, Ont.), drove to my house in the east end of Toronto - a 40 minute drive - to pick up the 4GB device not 24 hours after the eBay auction closed. He paid cash.

Needless to say he was excited. I’m happy too.

So what does my experience say about domestic demand for the iPhone? It’s resale value is amazingly Honda-like for one. The 4GB iPhone model was discontinued in September (I believe), a fact you think would dissuade potential buyers. Next to Palm’s Foleo, the dud of an ultra mobile PC that never did make it to market last year, the 4GB model has to rank as one of the devices with the shortest shelf life ever.

It also proves Rogers, the carrier that will eventually carry the iPhone in Canada, will have little trouble selling the device if and when it’s able to strike a deal with Apple. Canadians badly want an iPhone. Nearly all of the 20 or so people that bid on my iPhone were Canucks.

The eagerness on the part of prospective Canadian iPhone bidders and buyers also shows they don’t put much stock in the release date rumours or aren’t paying attention to them.

My iPhone was unlocked which also made the “old” iPhone attractive - Norm didn’t have to do anything other than slip his SIM card into the top of the iPhone to make it functional.

There are estimates that roughly 25% of iPhones are “missing” which likely means people are using them on an unlocked basis. Yes, it’s complicated for most individuals to unlock a phone - luckily there are people to be hired that will do it for a potential iPhone user!

I know of four non-techie Canadians who are using the device on the Rogers and Fido networks now.

Point is, everyone will be better off once Apple and Rogers are able to strike an agreement to have the device sold in Canada. Sure Apple can record the revenue for the device sale - locked or unlocked - but it doesn’t get a cut of the service provider’s revenue like it does from AT&T or other European operators now.

Rogers loses too. The company doesn’t get to record the significant amount of device revenue that would come from an iPhone sale - it probably won’t have to subsidize the phone because of latent domestic demand. Furthermore, it’s not able to sell potentially lucrative iPhone-specific applications like visual voicemail and the YouTube application to iPhone buyers.

Consumers won’t have to turn to rogue iPhone sellers on eBay either.

Rob Bruce (Rogers) and Steve Jobs (or at least his underlings) - if you’re not talking it’s probably time to sit down again.

Until then, the annoying iPhone release date rumour mill will continue to churn.