This is, of course, in keeping with expectations over the product. It was thought that the HTC Desire would sell out quickly and it most assuredly has. In response, it looks like Telus is more than happy about the sales. So happy is Telus, in fact, that they’re offering $50 mail-in rebates for anyone signing up for the HTC Desire. They’ve also proudly displayed the “Temporarily Out of Stock” logo on the website. Good times.

There is some disparity with availability across Canada, however, and some markets may still have a few of the phones lying around. For the most part, though Telus is going with the “out of stock” badge of honour.

For the uninitiated, the HTC Desire looks an awful lot like the Nexus One. It has a different body shell, however, and uses an optical trackpad instead of the trackball. The phone has been reviewed with great positivity, with CNET UK giving the HTC Desire a 9.2/10 and TechRadar offering it five out of five stars. TechRadar said the HTC Desire was “like the Nexus One, only better.”

Telus customers know that this is the best Android device the company has ever released, so the $50 rebate could come in handy for those looking to snag one between August 20 and October 20. The rebate is only good for customers signing up for three year contracts, too, and the original sales receipt must be mailed in to get it.

Back in June of this year, Bell released a $15 monthly unlimited mobile browser promo that was designed specifically to move units of the Palm Pre. The promo didn’t include tethering, but it did allow for unlimited mobile internet browsing on the Palm Pre. The “tempting” offer apparently didn’t do much, however, and Bell was forced to up the ante.

Now the Palm Pre is available for $0.00 on contract or the previous price of $299.99 without contracts. Bell’s now docked another $15 off the monthly price plan to hit $35 a month for the Smartphone 50 plan. The Smartphone 50 plan includes 100 local minutes and 100 bonus local minutes along with 500MB of data, unlimited evenings and weekends, call waiting, and call forwarding.

For only $35 a month for the Palm Pre, Bell is hoping that this may be the deal to make things happen in terms of moving units. If this doesn’t work, we can probably look forward to an even better deal in terms of the Palm Pre. And who knows what that’ll entail?

Rogers is in on the act too, recently announcing that it will also be dropping the Torch on the 24th. To say that the three companies will be offering comparable plans on the BlackBerry product would be an understatement. From what we’ve been able to figure out, Bell, Telus and Rogers will all be issuing the Torch for $199 on contract.

Telus hasn’t exactly confirmed pricing yet, but I think it’s safe to say that the prices are generally right in line with Canada’s industry standards.

These sorts of hot products generally do hit Canada’s telecom giants at the same time and they do arrange their data plans and other facets around each other. The general rule is that the Big Three get first crack at new hot products and the industry, what’s left of it anyway, falls in line behind. That’s just the way it goes for Canadian customers, as they soon realize that there are few choices in terms of who to purchase new products from.

The Torch probably won’t make that big of a splash in Canada, at least right away, but the smart phone could be a decent long-term builder for RIM.

When it was first announced, the BlackBerry Torch 9800 was believed to be the product that would help RIM launch into the next phase. A game-changing phone in every way, the Torch was said to be a worthy rival to the iPhone 4. Of course, then the phone actually came out in the United States and reviews were mixed. The new O/S was a plus, but the rest of the phone just didn’t seem to cut it.

These days, Mobilicity is proud to boast a 30% increase in distribution locations with a total of over 300. Due to the fact that Mobilicity is only operating in the Toronto area, 300 distribution centres isn’t a bad showing for the company.

Mobilicity was originally formed as DAVE Wireless when they entered the 2008 spectrum auction. The company spent $243 million on 10 Mhz of AWS spectrum blocks largely covering southern and eastern Ontario, Victoria, Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton.

Plans are to extend their customer base by reaching into some of the other areas that they have spectrum in, but nothing much has happened so far. The concentration is, as you can see, largely on the Toronto area. According to Mobilicity, however, moving to Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton, and Vancouver remain part of the plan. There is no arrangement to go into Montreal, though, because the company doesn’t own any spectrum there.

“We;re continuing to enhance our distribution to provide the most convenient customer experience around. With our extensive and growing network of locations, Mobilicity customers can easily shop for phones, pay their bills and receive customer support near their homes or workplaces,” said Mobilicity president and CEO Dave Dobbin.

Along with Public Mobile and WIND Mobile, Mobilicity has dedicated itself to taking on the incumbents in the area of discount products and service plans. The fact that Rogers launched Chatr and Bell re-launched Solo Mobile may have hurt the chances of companies like Mobilicity, but Dobbin’s company is still aimed at accomplishing its goals and the 100-day mark symbolizes just the beginning.

This all was quite a problem for SaskTel, as the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S was to come on the heels of the launch of the 3G network. It would have helped SaskTel’s image considerably in that they would have looked like real competition for Bell and Telus.

But wait! Jump, an authorized SaskTel retailer, has reported that it does indeed have some Samsung Galaxy S units available. And Jump is filling some of those pre-orders, too, which means at least some of those who wanted their phones by launch date can have their phones slightly past launch date.

The Samsung Galaxy S is being touted as a quality first Android product for SaskTel, so it’s good to see that they can get at least some of them off the ground. It may not be the launch they were looking for, but these things happen and SaskTel can still gain some points through this if they provide service and some sort of accountability to customers looking for the product.

SaskTel’s price plans for the Samsung Galaxy S are pretty interesting. They match Bell in charging $150 with a three-year contract, but their no-contract price is an alarming $645. That exceeds Bell’s no-contract price of $499, of course, but some increases are to be expected from smaller carriers.

In any event, SaskTel has got to be hoping that they can get on with their launch. Even though Jump was able to bail them out with some “early” units, the main batch of Samsung Galaxy S phones still need to arrive in stores.

That means residents of Saskatoon, Regina, Moose Jaw, Swift Current, North Battleford, Prince Albert, Lloydminster, Yorkton. Weyburn and Estevan can get their hands on all the 3G+ goodness thanks to Telus’ rollout of the network. SaskTel’s rollout is comparable, of course, but there’s no telling where Telus plans to stop with providing service. Their network may be more reliable, too, and SaskTel might want to brace itself.

Now this all came about thanks to a network sharing agreement between SaskTel, Telus and Bell that came into play all the way back in October of 2009. The arrangement was to ensure that “Customers will enjoy the benefits of the most advanced wireless technology commercially available in the world, expanded network coverage, and access to a range of new and leading-edge wireless devices.”

Sure, it only took until now for the network to get up and running. But at least Saskatchewan residents can get in on all the magic of 3G right around the time the rest of the country is moving towards 4G.

The agreement between the three companies ensures that 98% of the province gets coverage, which is good news for consumers because they’ll have plenty of options in terms of finding spots to get access. With Bell and Telus on board along with SaskTel, the network sharing could result in some rather interesting pricing as the companies work to divvy up the customer base.

None of this is to say that Saskatchewan is a battleground for Canadian telcos, of course, but there’s a lot more to the province than wide open network spaces.

On August 19, Public Mobile announced that it was going to knock a whopping $40 off of its most expensive phone: the coveted Kyocera G2GO. The Kyocera G2GO retailed for $180 at Public Mobile outright, but the $40 discount was a great help. Now, however, the Kyocera G2GO has dropped even more. It was retailing for $125 at Public Mobile, but it’s not $90 outright. That’s with no contract, folks.

Public Mobile’s done similar slash jobs on other phones. The Kyocera Tomo is just $60 no contract. Not impressed? It used to be $125. And the Samsung R312? That’s going for $62.50 now. It used to retail for $125 no contract.

The discounts mean that Public Mobile has sliced and diced the prices on three of their phones. That’s pretty good stuff considering PM’s only got four phones. The ZTE C78 stays the same, retailing no contract for $70.

Clearly these are some pretty impressive discounts, but are they signs of desperation within the walls of Public Mobile? Or are they innocent promotions simply designed to get more customers?

Either way, customers can get in on these deals until September 12 or while supplies last. Bear in mind that the deals also include one month of free service. Public Mobile sure is working to get customers in the door, that’s for sure, but whether they have the selection and service quality to keep them there is something that remains to be seen. Good luck!

Of course, all of us industry types knew that Bell was going to be bringing the Torch and that the release was going to be sometime in the fall, but now it looks like the confirmation has arrived with the appearance of the web page.

The page is, of course, one of those usual “sign up for more information when more information becomes available” types of deals. Good enough for fans of the Torch that can’t wait to get their hands on one of these babies, I guess, but the reviews so far haven’t been all that convincing and the Torch isn’t exactly selling that well in the U.S. Maybe Canadian markets will change its fortunes? Hard to say.

In any event, launch parties are already planned for the BlackBerry Torch 9800 in Toronto on September 21. So the QWERTY slider will be brought in to Canadian markets in style, at least, as the T-Dot launch party should be a pretty big event. And there are subsequent launch events schedule for Vancouver (September 22) and Montreal (September 23) that should generate some buzz among fans.

Unless you’ve been living under a telecom rock somewhere, you know that the BlackBerry Torch 9800 is the device with the updated BlackBerry 6 O/S. It’s supposed to be a game-changer of sorts, but early reviews haven’t exactly been singing its praises as an overall device.

The program is being called a “digital wallet,” which is interesting given the availability of debit and credit card options in almost every single purchase point.

Banks, tech companies and cell phone providers are lining up to become the first to develop the technology, with designs on transforming how consumers pay for things in North America. The technology has existed for years in Japan, but America has been a little slow on the uptake.

The technology essentially allows users to install chips into their smart phones that emit radio signals over short distances. Users then “bump” their cell phones with point of purchase locations and bank account data is collected to enable the purchase to be made. Sound like a potential for disaster? That’s because it probably is.

Of course, the big goal behind this is that of “contactless payment.” Visa and the other companies involved are hoping that users will take to the idea of simply “waving” their phones near products they want to purchase. Apparently the use of a simple card is too complicated.

With identity theft continually on the rise, this project should be raising a lot of alarm bells and red flags. Imagine the opportunity for wireless robbery should this technology really take off. There is so much potential for disaster here that I’m having a hard time getting excited about the possibilities. And nevermind the potential for lost jobs and the continued move towards a completely impersonal society.

Imagine stores filled with quiet drones simply waving their phones in front of products they want to purchase. No more cashiers, no more check-outs. Sound like a utopia? Hardly.

The deal is currently being considered and the cell phone makers are somewhat put off by the idea of regulations telling them how to manufacture phones across the board. The cost, too, could be an issue.

Now the proposal does include what is being termed as all “relevant media,” so other media players could also be included in the mix.

For some, this battle means the survival of a dying form of entertainment. FM radio is dwindling as people turn to media devices and MP3 players to get the music and entertainment they want on demand. Sifting through the lack of choices on the FM dial is a less than thrilling prospect these days, especially with annoying “shock jocks” and mindless banter filling most of the airwaves.

This is a sort of lobbying tactic used to keep old industries afloat in the wave of new ones. It is also coached in the recording industry’s long-standing dispute with getting paid properly for its work, although the terms of those arrangements appear to change weekly. This time it’s about territory and radio, next time it’ll be about something else.

So will cell phone makers have to include mandatory FM tuners in all of their products? It’s probably too early to say, but a little subsidizing might grease the wheels. If the makers can cut some sort of deal with with the broadcasters for payment for the installations, this could actually fly. The theory follows that the broadcasters make more money by having their “products” exposed on mobile devices. It’s possible.

Of course, there are some who feel that FM radio still has value and they may well enjoy the options with a tuner on a cell phone. But there are plenty of ways to stream radio already, so it’s questionable if this will make any sort of difference whatsoever.