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• Historic Fort York David Spittal courtesy murmur.com
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Early in July, I became part of a global rush to purchase Apple's ultra-coveted iPhone 3G.

It was a day I won't soon forget for a wide variety of reasons. There were lineups that stretched hundreds of people deep, loaded with gadget freaks looking for 2008's must-have device. There were the unpleasant reactions elicited by those who waited hours (and I do mean hours!) for the iPhone, only to find out Rogers Wireless was completely sold out of the device. And, of course, for those of us lucky enough to get our hands on the iPhone, there were not one, but two major system crashes: the massive, worldwide choking of Apple's iTunes software and Rogers being unable to cope with thousands of simultaneous activations across the country.

It was, needless to say, a chaotic day. But now, over a month-and-a-half later, I can say my life has changed remarkably since I got my iPhone - in a good way, mostly.

As a major league Apple fan, I was already sold on the quality of the iPhone. But now there's something distinctly different about how I live my mobile lifestyle: my old, talk-and-text approach to mobility has been upgraded to talk, text, e-mail, web, GPS and hundreds of other applications. I have now, finally, become part of the SmartPhone crowd.

Earlier this year, I identified several key trends that I believed would be the main focus of Tech Talk this year. Among those themes included touch-screen applications, a key aspect of the iPhone. Yet I'm now revising my predictions and adding another new, exciting trend within technology circles - mass consumer adoption of SmartPhones.

So 2008 is quickly turning into the year in which Canadian wireless providers have finally woken up to the new reality of how customers use their cells; data usage is now as important as voice, customers are demanding a whole lot more for their money, and the iPhone's release may prove to be a watershed for an industry dealing with serious, long-term public relations problems.

In the wake of the iPhone's over-hyped release in July, Rogers - the only cellular provider capable of operating the iPhone on the GSM network standard - took serious public relations beatings over its ill-conceived data pricing schemes. Yet, for the first time in recent memory, competitors Bell (already in the midst of a major rebranding effort due to months of negative PR) and Telus came out with genuinely competitive and enticing offers for average folks to go SmartPhone, including unlimited data usage on the Blackberry platform.

With kids now back in school, there are packaged data offers for Samsung's Instinct and the Blackberry that both Bell and Telus are pushing hard on consumers. This is a big change for an industry that has rested on hefty gouging of customers' data usage for comparatively little reward when you look at other countries' carriers like Sprint, Verizon Wireless or AT and T in the U.S.

Secondly, after last year's policy change of letting customers keep their cellphone number for life - a change strongly resisted by the big cellular companies in Canada for years - the full measure of that change is coming to fruition.

Offers to switch cell companies are spreading quickly across Canada, a function of newer, cooler handsets being available more and more often. This presents a unique challenge to the Big Three companies in Canada. As new GSM providers like Globalive and potentially Google entering the Canadian cellphone market within the next few years, how will Rogers, Telus and Bell remain competitive and retain customer loyalty? It means more features, more freebies and more value for a customer's money in the years ahead.

Finally, it's no secret that Canadians generally do not like their cellphone companies. They're seen by some as necessary evils, companies that overcharge their customers significantly in comparison to people in other countries. Want proof? Britain's O2, the carrier of the iPhone in the U.K., offered a deal for the iPhone 3G that would make Canadians salivate with envy: pay-as-you-go iPhone plans and even a package that involves no charge for the iPhone hardware.

In a global marketplace where access to information is easy and quick, Canadians are much more informed now about how other markets cater to their customers. The iPhone's release shows that Canadian carriers must exercise far greater care and consideration of global market trends when it comes to future editions of big-ticket handsets.

In the meantime, I'm quite content with my iPhone 3G. I push my data usage as far as I can go every month, limit my expensive daytime minutes, text my head off and talk for hours on my unlimited evenings and weekends plan.

Welcome to the SmartPhone era, Canada. We're finally catching up with the rest of the world.