Since the release of the iPhone price plans, Rogers and it’s CEO Ted Rogers have been taking quite a bit of heat from the masses who believe they are getting screwed by ‘the man’.
While I fully believe that the options and price points for the iPhone are quite unfair (3 Year Contract Only, Call Display Not Standard, Evenings Start at 9pm, etc, etc), this post is not really about the iPhone or it’s plans, it is more about Ted’s greed and his quest to take over the Telecommunications Industry in Canada.
We, as Canadians, have been paying too much for our Wireless communications over the past 10 years, but without some decent competition from a company that can afford to jump in the game and start from scratch (Read: Not piggybacking on Rogers/Telus/Bell networks), then ‘The Big Three’ will continue to have a stranglehold on our country.
But with great power comes great greed. Corporations these days do not care about the consumer, they care about the shareholders and the bottom line. They are stuck in a short term mindset that will turn the biggest profit in the shortest amount of time to ensure their shareholders are kept happy. It’s time for somebody to break the mold and change the game, and whoever is the first horse out of the gate will be declared the winner and take a majority stake in the market.
But how do you change the game and win customers? Easy, give the customer what they want! I know, I know, it’s a crazy concept, but hear me out.
All these people that are upset about the iPhone pricing plans were ready to jump ship from their current provider over to Rogers just for the iPhone. Let’s say the 20,000+ people at RuinediPhone.com all bought a basic iPhone on July 11th, That’s $3,980,000 (20k x $199) in sales alone. This does not include extras or plans! So right off the bat Rogers has lost almost $4million in sales.
Now, let’s say Rogers offered decently priced plans with all features included (Call Display, Unlimited Text, Unlimited Data, etc, etc). First, people would not be upset in such large numbers (There are always people that will complain).
This about it Ted, if you offered Wireless customers awesome price plans for ALL phones and PDAs (Higher prices for unlimited and corporate use are OK, as long as they are still reasonable), just think about the flood of customers you would get from Telus and Bell. People cut their bill in half and you get an assload of new, loyal, customers!
Take the people who spend $300 on average per month on their cell phones. Would they dump their CDMA phones for GSM and Rogers if they could get the same thing for $150 a month? Damn rights they would, who doesn’t want to save almost $2000 a year on their wireless! Think about all those corporate clients that buy hundreds of phones a year from you. Now think about the corporate clients who buy hundreds of phones a year from Telus and Bell… Hrmmm, thats a LOT of business you could be taking.
Of course, this is just the opinion of somebody who does not run a billion dollar corporation and whose daily life is not fueled by greed. If I was a Rogers shareholder though, I would be all over this, I mean, I could take a small hit now for the big gains that a hundred million new customers would bring down the road. Or maybe I couldn’t, I might need a new Ferarri tomorrow…
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