My Cellphone My Terms

iPad in Canada

With over 2 Million iPads sold in just 60 days I am starting to see what all the hype is about. The iPad is truly revolutionary! Apple does it again, first the iPhone now the iPad. Apple is changing the way we see and interact with the digital world. Reading a book or magazine will soon be a thing of the past, thanks to iPad and the way it makes reading fun and interactive. I can see this device popping up in every class room, in every school, in every grade.  It just makes common daily activities fun. So how do you get one and what are the data packages

Well, it may not be that simple to just run to the Apple store and pick one up; many locations are sold out with wait times of up to 10 days! You can purchase the iPad from your local Apple location, Future Shop, Best Buy and many online sites, if they have them available.

Keep in mind that there are 6 models to choose from:

iPad (Wi-Fi only) 16GB for $549, 32GB for $649 and 64GB for $749

iPad (Wi-Fi & 3G) 16GB for $679, 32GB for $779 and 64GB for $879

If you decide on the Wi-Fi 3G models you will need to get a data plan. Both Bell and Rogers Wireless offer iPad specific data plans with no long term contracts. You will find that the pricing is pretty much the same. Rogers offers 250MB a month for $15 or 5GB a month for $35 plus taxes. Bell’s pricing is similar except they give you the ability to get unlimited data in their Wi-Fi hot spot locations for free, which are located in several locations including Starbucks. Bell is also offering a subscription to Bell Mobile TV until August 31st for free.

The bad thing about Bell’s plan is it only lasts for 30 days, after that you will need to renew your plan; this can get pretty cumbersome after the first couple of months. You will also not be able to “roll over” your data to the next month if you did not use it all up in the 30 days. If you do happen to use up the data within the 30 days you will have to renew your account, I don’t like it!

The Rogers plan is much easier to deal with. You can pay in advance for a 30-day period and it will automatically renew every 30 days unless you decide to cancel your plan before the end of the 30 days.

We may see other carriers like Fido, a subsidiary of Rogers, and Virgin Mobile a subsidiary of Bell providing similar plans in the near future.