Why the lack of android phones in Canada?

[crunchygranola]

Hey guys, I'm new to this forum. I just have a quick question. I was recently in Novi, MI and the majority of the smartphones were android phones. I also notice this when I go to Buffalo, NY. Myself, I live in Ontario.

All three major carriers in Canada advertise android phones and tablets constantly, rarely acknowledging that they all carry the iPhone 4. In every Best Buy and other electronic stores the demo shelves are dominated by the Galaxy S, Atrix, and an assortment of HTC phones that all look the same. However, NOBODY has Android phones. In the last year I have literally seen 3 android phones. In the unscientific survey in my head, 60% of all smartphones are blackberries, 38% are iPhones, and the rest are other.

Does anyone know why this ridiculously discrepancy between Canada (ontario at least) and the US happens? Android has been reserved for the ubernerds here. Blackberry is for the "cool" kids and all the "posers", and iPhone users are just the blackberry "traitors." WP7 is non existent but also marketed hard.

 

[ninja_reject]

Sounds like your "survey" subjects are kids. Are you in high school? Someone is buying the androids,they are not on all the store electronics shelves for decoration.

 

[crunchygranola]

I am in University. I am very involved in a lot of companies as well and it is all blackberry.

 

[ninja_reject]

Of course companies use blackberry, that is what it is known for. Big companies buy blackberries for their employees. They are good at all things e-mail, they have very good keyboards. That is all blackberry has going for them.

 

[Stuntman]

BlackBerrys are the standard at my workplace. They are very good for business communications. It integrates well with Outlook and Office Communicator.

For my personal phone, I use an Android phone. I see Android phones around the people I know. It's a small sample, but I've seen a mix of Android, iPhone and BB. One person I know has a WinMo phone and I used to use a Symbian phone (now religated to a music player).

Phone stores and carriers advertise which ever phone is new. The iPhone came out last summer, so the hype has died down although it has picked up a bit with the white iPhone.

 

[avenuePad]

It does seem that there are more iPhone users up here. One reason could be that we have three year contracts, for the most part. I do find Android phones are starting to creep in, though. A lot of the 3GS people that bought into contracts two or three years ago will start to try out Android.

But yeah, I'm in a band with members of widely varying ages and most of them have iPhones. But I'm the youngest and I'm in my mid-thirties. lol. The sax player that plays shows with us actually has a Galaxy S. The guitar player is a hardcore MacHead and literally looks down on anything that doesn't have the Apple logo. Sad really. I just try and ignore that aspect about him. The bass player and drummer both have iPhones, but they're not as hardcore. I've been exposing my phone to these guys, including the hardcore guy, and they do seem to be softening up, if even just a little, to Android. heh

 

[darkurza]

I'm from Toronto myself and I can say that most people don't bother with smart phones such as Androids because of the ridiculous prices. Using a normal cell phone is fine but if you have to bundle it with a data plan, a 2 year contract it becomes out of hand. For example, my rate in Toronto was 40cents/min. +30/min for long distance (between Waterloo and Toronto which is less than 200 km). Here in Germany right now, I pay 13 euro cents to call home to Canada....

 

[avenuePad]

I'm from Toronto myself and I can say that most people don't bother with smart phones such as Androids because of the ridiculous prices. Using a normal cell phone is fine but if you have to bundle it with a data plan, a 2 year contract it becomes out of hand. For example, my rate in Toronto was 40cents/min. +30/min for long distance (between Waterloo and Toronto which is less than 200 km). Here in Germany right now, I pay 13 euro cents to call home to Canada....

WTF?! lol I can't stand the carrier monopolies we have up here. Seventy cents a minute for a call between Waterloo and Toronto?! I know the pain though. When I call from Bridgewater to Halifax, or vice versa, I pay up the wazoo.

 

[outcastrc]

I think this has a lot to do with the absolutely asinine 3 year, locked in data and voice contracts up here. People are just starting to be able to get out of their old iphone contracts. Most people jumped on the iphone 3g, so no one could even get the 3gs. And even then a lot of people used the apple iphone early upgrade clause to get out of iphone contracts early (if you can call 2.5 years early) So if I am correct I won't see another wave of new phones around me until at least fall of 2012.

About 1/2 the people that I know with smartphones went back to an iphone 4, the other half went android. I'd like to say Blackberry had a share but only 2 people I know keep going back to them... About 6 months later, about 1/3ish of the iphone 4 people wish they bought android instead, and none of the android people regret leaving iphone. Most of these decisions seem to revolve around people addictions to gaming, or lack of... Thats just my group sample.

One thing I find really surprising is that 4 companies I know have switched from Blackberries to Iphones. Never thought I would see that happen in my lifetime. 2 of those companies wished they were more android aware when they made the decision to change. One downright regrets now being locked into iphones, and wishes they had chosen androids. (mainly due to app costs they had to spend on iphone vs android)

 

[substring]

@crunchygranola, is it because Canada is RIM's backyard?

@outcastrc, people who initially bought the iPhone because they are sheep and iPhone is all they know. Those people who switched from iPhone to Android phones because they finally open their eyes.

 

[avenuePad]

@crunchygranola, is it because Canada is RIM's backyard?

@outcastrc, people who initially bought the iPhone because they are sheep and iPhone is all they know. Those people who switched from iPhone to Android phones because they finally open their eyes.

haha

There is definitely more Blackberry loyalty up here because of the Canuck connection, but that only goes so far. I do wish that BB would pull up their socks more, though I really do like the Playbook, at least from what I've seen of it.

 

[crunchygranola]

I think a lot of the blackberry loyalty due in part because of its popularity, making BBM more important.

I don't think the contract situation fully explain things though... I don't know about the other carriers but Rogers allowed me to upgrade my BB9000 to an iPhone 4 after exactly 2 years. Again, in my own unscientific study, almost all iPhones I see are iPhone 4s. These people did upgrade and chose iOS over the androids available in mid-late 2010 like the Galaxy S. (EVO not in Canada).

 

[Ncaissie]

Bb was the first smart phone here and the email notification works well for businesses.
I have a 3GS that I purchased full price and last week (1 year later) I picked up an xperia play. So far I love it but need to get into it more. The wifi problem pisses me off because I only have 512mb data and if I forget to turn off my data it sucks it up fast getting games.