Apple-Rogers falling out: A story too good to be true?

Apple-Rogers falling out: A story too good to be true?
Daniel Smith, a Canadian sales and marketing consultant with an eclectic blog called Smithereens, posted on Saturday what he called “a very plausible rumour” about the launch at of Apple’s iPhone 3G on the Rogers Communications network.

The gist of the post — entitled “Apple Flips Rogers the Bird” — was that Apple and Rogers, Canada’s largest mobile carrier, have had a falling out over the negative publicity generated by Rogers’ pricing plans for the new iPhone that goes on sale Friday morning. Rogers’ plans require a three-year contract, have no unlimited data option and, compared with comparable AT&T (T) plans, offer a third less calling time and half as many text messages. (See here for the petition for rate relief that has gathered more than 43,000 signatures and here for the Vancouver Sun editorial urging customers not to buy an iPhone.)

The net effect, Smith claims, is that “thousands” of Canadian part-time workers hired by Rogers have lost their jobs and untold numbers of iPhone 3Gs earmarked for Canada have been diverted to Apple’s European partners.