So us Canadians are finally gonna get our shot at an iPhone, big deal right…but analysts say it’s aimed at a niche market and spending on the phone may not live up to its buzz.  Canadians will finally get their chance to buy the mobile phone that lets users play music, watch video, surf the Internet and check email when it rolls out Friday after hype and a price controversy.

Exclusive Canadian carrier Rogers Wireless (TSX:RCI.B) lowered the iPhone’s data price to $30 a month for a limited time just days before the launch.  Analysts said Thursday that while there’s a lot of pent-up demand for the high-end, touch-screen phone, only a small segment of consumers will buy it because of the costs associated with running it.

“The average person is going to look at this thing and say ‘Very cool, very nice phone,’ but am I willing to spend the money for a three-year contract at probably $70 to $80 a month minimum when you talk about voice and data,” said U.S. telecom analyst Jack Gold.

The new, faster 3G iPhone now sells for $200, less than half its price a year ago when the first generation of the phone was launched in the United States.  Rogers has the only Canadian network capable of running the new, faster iPhone and it has announced it’s cutting the data fee to $30 monthly for Web browsing, email and video on a three-year contract for customers who activate their iPhones by Aug. 31.

The iPhone will use 3G wireless technology on a GSM network, which is widely used in Europe and Asia and is about 70 per cent to 75 per cent of the global market.  Analyst Carmi Levy said Apple Inc.’s products generate a lot of buzz but that doesn’t always translate into sales.

“They generate a lot more awareness in the broad media than they do actual numbers of people purchasing them,” Levy said of Apple products.  Apple is a master at creating “aspirational buzz,” said Levy of Toronto’s AR Communications Inc.  “Apple wants that even if you can’t afford one of their products, that you will still want to buy it, you will still keep it on your wish list so that some point in the future you will be in a position to buy it,” Levy said. 

“It’s a relatively small, but devoted segment. The first (generation of ) iPhone sold about six million phones, give or take. The overall smartphone market is 10 times that much, 20 times that much,” he said of worldwide smartphone sales.  Apple has said it hopes to sell 10 million iPhones worldwide by the end of this year.

Rogers hasn’t said how many iPhones it has received to sell in Canada or would like to sell, but has said it has sufficient inventory.  Select Rogers stores will open up at 8 a.m. to sell iPhones in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary and Halifax.

Research In Motion’s BlackBerry and Apple’s iPhone are competing against each other, and other smartphone makers, in both the consumer and business markets.

Gold said the iPhone is still more of a consumer device even though some business people may want to use it. “The bottom line is that for most enterprises, the iPhone is not a legitimate competitor to BlackBerry at this point he said. Stewart also said he sees the iPhone as more of a consumer device than the BlackBerry.

“BlackBerry, it’s a work phone. It looks like a work phone and acts like a work phone,” he said, adding it’s the preferred choice for enterprise.  However, the iPhone is trying to attract business users.

Research In Motion’s new 3G BlackBerry Bold, out later this summer, could present a further challenge to the iPhone in the business market.  The BlackBerry Bold is designed for high-speed networks and is aimed at business professionals globally, allowing them to send and receive e-mails while also talking on the smartphone or surfing the Internet. I refuse to go on a data plan until our prices here in Canada get down a lot lower, closer to our US neighbours.