I got to speak with Will Novosedlik, VP – Brand & Communications, and Scott Campbell, Chief Marketing Officer. I was mostly interested in the future expansion of the Wind “Home” zones, future network upgrades, and phone offerings.

Phones:

“We are not in the device business, we are in the service business, so there isn’t much we can do.”

That’s the gist of it folks. Wind would love to offer the iPhone, the newest HTC EVO/Incredible, and every BlackBerry phone in existence, but they have no control over the manufacturers building AWS-capable versions of their handsets. Wind (as well as Mobilicity and T-Mobile in the US) operate on the 3G-AWS band, which is slightly different from the standard 3G band that the other North American carriers use. This means that your iPhone 3GS will not work on the Wind network at 3G speeds, even if you unlock it and use a Wind SIM. You can presumably get voice and text, and data speeds will likely be limited to EDGE (think dial-up speeds).

RIM has apparently been great to Wind, and the two companies are working together quite well on ensuring that BlackBerry phones are 3G-AWS capable. Wind and RIM are going to be holding a series of promotions in the near future at sporting events and festivals, so watch out for those. Expect a solid offering of BlackBerrys in the future.

HTC has one phone on the Wind network – the HTC Maple. No word on any progress towards getting some of the new HTC superphones working, although it does seem that HTC is willing to make special versions of its phones for carriers. The EVO 4G is a WiMax-4G capable phone on Sprint’s network. Sprint is currently the only carrier in North America to use WiMax for 4G, and it looks like all the other carriers have plans to go with WiMax’s alternative technology, LTE. That HTC would make a WiMax version of their latest and greatest phone bodes well for the 3G-AWS carriers.

As for the iPhone – it’s anyone’s guess. Personally I don’t expect the next generation iPhone to come in an AWS version but that is pure speculation and could be completely wrong.

Of course the manufacturers need to be sure that they will sell enough of the AWS phones in order to justify making a different version. For many of them, there just isn’t enough demand right now. T-Mobile, Wind, and Mobilicity are the only AWS carriers in North America right now and all are relatively small players. Until they gain enough subscribers to get the manufacturers’ attention, the AWS handset market will remain fairly small.

That being said, Wind has a good relationship with T-Mobile, and are working together to build demand for AWS phones from the manufacturers. Apparently, they all have AWS handsets on their roadmap, so the phones are coming, it’s just a question now of when.

Android:

Pretty much the same as above. Android will become more available as manufacturers make AWS-capable Android phones.

LTE/4G:

Wind is able to upgrade to LTE along with the other carriers when they need to. There is no point in doing so now because there aren’t any LTE compatible phones out yet and it will be a while before they become widespread. If you’re looking to the future, Wind claims to be ready to upgrade with everyone else when the time is right.

Home Zone Expansion:

Wind is expanding its “Home” zones in all cities pretty much constantly. The Vancouver suburbs will largely be covered by the end of 2010, and the expansion will happen gradually and continually. Expect the same in Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, and Ottawa. I couldn’t get any more detail than that because even Wind doesn’t know exactly how fast the process will be.

When building out their network, Wind has to locate potential tower sites, contact the land owners, set up a lease agreement for the land to put up a tower, construct the tower, connect it to the existing network, test the system, and then go live. While they likely have the construction/connection/testing procedure down pat, the uncertainty and delays of locating and negotiating leasing agreements with individual landlords means they can’t give a solid timeline.

Summary:

There you have it. The phones will come when the manufacturers make them. The manufacturers will make them when there’s enough demand. Generating demand means growing the AWS carriers in numbers of subscribers. It’s a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem, but that’s how it goes.

Network expansion is progressing quickly and continually so all anyone can say is: be patient.

Any other questions, feel free to contact me and I’ll do what I can to answer.

I showed up a little after the early birds as I wanted to get a sense of what it was like for someone trying to get a Wind phone on launch day. As expected, there were quite a few people milling about, consumers and media alike, and some were enjoying the $1 hot dogs.

And Globalive chairman Tony Lacavera was out talking to media and potential customers all day too.

I stood in line and chatted with people all morning about phones, plans, carriers, and other things. The general feeling I got from people was that the phone selection with Wind wasn’t great, the “Home” zones were a little smaller than they would have liked, but the plans were simple and cheap.

Now, there are a few types of cellular customers. If you are a techy-gizmo type of person who needs the latest and greatest hardware, Wind probably isn’t for you. If you are more concerned about using the phone to talk and text, Wind looks like a good option. If you live way out in the suburbs or travel there often, Wind isn’t too great for you right now. If you’re an urbanite, Wind becomes an attractive option to consider. The people in line seemed to be in agreement about these points, and they also seemed quite knowledgeable about phones and carrier bands and roaming charges.

One guy I spoke to lives in Surrey and was getting a Wind SIM card for his BlackBerry Bold just to test things out (that’s the great thing about no contracts… you can test the service out and cancel anytime if you’re not happy). He was disappointed with the lack of coverage in Surrey and the somewhat cryptic “coming later in 2010″ note attached thereto, but still picked up his SIM card anyways.

If you’re in Vancouver (less UBC), North Vancouver, Burnaby, Richmond, or New Westminster, you’re covered by a Wind “Home” zone and are good to go. If you live in Delta, Surrey, Coquitlam, UBC, or beyond, well, Wind isn’t quite ideal just yet. Although I did hear rumours that some Wind customers visiting from Toronto were seeing Surrey as a “Home” zone last week, the official line is that it is an “Away” zone and you will be paying roaming charges. As to the progress of the expansion of the coverage area, all I can say is that it will be moving outwards consistently throughout the rest of the year, with the goal of the full advertised coverage being achieved at the end of this year. The rate at which that happens is unknown right now, and a lot depends on how quickly the process of negotiating with landlords for land to put up a tower goes, followed by tower erection, connection to the rest of the Wind network, and network testing.

After talking for a while outside, I made my way inside and got a few shots of the store. At that point a media rep saw me with my notepad out and quickly came over to take some questions and pass me along to the appropriate individuals. Be sure to check out the interview post for some more information.

What does the iPad mean to Canadian consumers, what is it good for, and what are the communication implications? This article will be divided into two parts: First, a commentary on the iPad itself – my own personal reaction. Second, I will analyze its position in the Canadian wireless industry. (Updated: Wireless commentary here)

The iPad:

The specs on the iPad are available one Apple’s iPad site. This was a much-anticipated launch and many rumours about features and specifications were flying all over the net for the past several months. Steve Jobs posted a tweet to the effect that the iPad is going to be the device people remember Apple for, not the iPhone or the iMac. Will it live up to the hype?

The iPad: The Good

Formfactor

The weight (1.5 lbs) and size (9.7″ screen) are nice. I have not gotten my hands on one, so I can’t say much about typing on it. The LED backlit IPS screen is apparently quite gorgeous as well. In order to be ultraportable it should have something on a netbook in terms of size, which it does. Having the screen size it does means you don’t have to hold it up to your face in order to read it.

The Battery

Anyone who has the pleasure of using one of the new MacBook Pros knows just how good the batteries in them are. It seems Apple has carried this battery technology over to the iPad. 10 hours of video/internet/actual use is quite amazing. 1 month of standby time is obviously overkill but comes with the territory of having a fantastic battery.

Pretty

The Processor

The in-house designed processor is probably the best part of this device from where I sit. It shows Apple’s commitment to tailor their hardware specifically to the function of the device, rather than seeing what parts are out there and building what they can from them. The Apple silicon, system-on-a-chip technology is what will give them the advantage over other entrants into this market.

3G – Unlocked

I also like the fact that the 3G version is unlocked. I can understand why Apple initially had to have exclusivity agreements with the iPhone, but now that they have some critical mass behind their devices, and consumer investment in the app store, they can employ a strategy of wider adoption and capitalize on the app store revenues.

The inclusion of data-only 3G as an option was practically a given as the device doesn’t lend itself well to being a phone. It’s nice to see no-contract service agreements that you can sign up for from the iPad itself. I can only hope that this kind of thing comes to the iPod touch but won’t hold my breath. An important question that needs to be answered is: Is there some way to piggy back the iPad 3G account onto an existing 3G account? That is, do I have to pay $30/mo for iPhone 3G and an additional $30/mo for iPad 3G, or can I combine the two devices under my single account?

iBook

The iBooks reader looks really slick, and the dropdown menus for the apps are great UI changes. Hopefully these will percolate through to the iPhone. I could easily see myself reading books on something like this.

The iPad: The Not So Good

It’s basically just a big iPod touch. That can do 3G. So it’s like an iPhone. But it can’t make calls.

Screen: Should be HD

The 1024×768 screen should have been 1280×960 or 1280×800 in my opinion. This would allow for 720p content to be played and would have paralleled the screen resolution on the MacBooks. Maybe it’s just me, but 1024×768 seems like such a 1999 resolution. The iPad is apparently capable of playing 720p video (according to the iPad site), so why not display it all?

I realize that 99% of all websites are designed to run on a screen width of 1024 pixels, so this resolution makes for an ideal web browsing experience, but I doubt that the performance cost of going to a slightly larger screen would have been that significant.

Pages? Really?

iWork? Really?

iWork for the iPad looks neat however I wouldn’t ever use it. I doubt that typing on it would ever feel natural enough to justify getting Pages, and if I need to use Pages, I’m working on a laptop. I’d have to play with Numbers in order to really understand how I would use it on the iPad. It seems like a key pad and mouse is the best way to go for that application and the transition to a touch device seems awkward. Keynote on the other hand, I can see. I wouldn’t ever want to use the iPad as my main Keynote authoring platform, but adjustments to presentations would work well. I guess it’s not bad to include iWork apps, but my MacBook Pro can do all of these things and do them better, so I am not compelled to switch.

Flash

Really? No flash support? Really?

Mobility

I already have an iPod touch and don’t quite feel compelled to get an iPad. The 3G is nice, but for most of the places I go, I have wifi, and the only thing I find I’d like to have 3G connectivity for is for making a phone call. Since the iPad doesn’t do phone calls natively, it seems like the 3G add on is lost on me.

If I’m truly trying to “be mobile” I find that the iPod touch/iPhone platform is fantastic for browsing. Is it just me or are the mobile versions of websites better than the full versions anyways?

The iPad: The Missing

No Tablet

We all thought this was going to be a tablet. So where’s the pen? Where’s the handwriting/notetaking software? This device could have been HUGE with students as a true tablet combined with a textbook subscription service.

Imagine: iChat on top, doc editing below

No iSight

A front-facing iSight camera would have launched the mobile video conferencing trend that seems to be coming. People have wanted this feature on the iPhone, so why not try it out on the iPad? Imagine this: You’re sitting in a chair with your iPad, and the top 1/3 of the screen has 2 video feeds showing on it – a client and a co-worker. The lower 2/3 of the screen is a document you are all working on. You pull out your pen and make changes, circling, highlighting, editing, scrolling by touch, and your client and co-worker see the updates. Okay that’s a lot to ask, but I’d still like to talk to my mom on it.

No Multitasking

Better hardware and more battery life and it still can’t run more than one thing?

The iPad: Where Does It Fit?

If you want to do work, you have a laptop and the iPad isn’t for you. If you want to listen to music and browse the web casually, then you probably have a smartphone or iPod touch and the iPad doesn’t really offer any improvements to your experience.

For people who have both a laptop and a smartphone-type device, the iPad is a very tough sell. It doesn’t seem to do anything better than either a laptop or an iPhone except for being an eReader.

But what if you don’t have a laptop (or need a new one), and don’t have a smart device (or need a new one)? Could you get an iPad and replace some old devices? Maybe. I couldn’t really see typing on it very much, even with the keyboard dock, but it could be useful for a person who travels a lot and for some reason can’t carry something as big as a laptop around during the day.

The suitability of the iPad as a mobile communication device will be the subject of a follow-up article.

Cellular & Wireless

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.–Google’s first consumer phone has arrived.
You’ve read all the exhaustive coverage of Google’s Nexus One phone over the last month. The Android-based device emerged at a company holiday party and has been the talk of the smartphone industry ever since. And at an event here at its headquarters Tuesday, Google is unveiling the Nexus One and announcing a plan to sell it directly to consumers. (cnet.com)

The phone will be made available through Verizon, T-Mobile, and Vodafone, and can be had for $179 with a contract, or unlocked without a contract for $529. No announcement details for a launch in Canada yet, but it will work on the AWS band, which Wind Mobile currently operates on, and DAVE, Public Mobile, and the big three will also operate on as well.