As everyone knows, the next big wave of application innovation will happen on mobile devices, cell phones and cell phones plus (eg iPhone, and the competition that’s sure to follow it).
Because of a combination of our regulatory environment, and our oligarchical mobile phone carriers, Canada is exempt from participation in this market. This means Canadian consumers are excluded (because mobile data fees are 10 to 100 times more expensive than those fees elsewhere), and Canadian companies – big ones and little ones have no platform to develop and test on; and no Canadian beta testers who can afford to test.
It makes you shake your head, as does this page at Pandora:
Dear Pandora Visitor,
We are deeply, deeply sorry to say that due to licensing constraints, we can no longer allow access to Pandora for most listeners located outside of the U.S. We will continue to work diligently to realize the vision of a truly global Pandora, but for the time being we are required to restrict its use. We are very sad to have to do this, but there is no other alternative.
We believe that you are in Canada (your IP address appears to be 70.81.35.224). If you believe we have made a mistake, we apologize and ask that you please contact us at pandora-support@pandora.com
If you are a paid subscriber, please contact us at pandora-support@pandora.com and we will issue a pro-rated refund to the credit card you used to sign up. If you have been using Pandora, we will keep a record of your existing stations and bookmarked artists and songs, so that when we are able to launch in your country, they will be waiting for you.
We will be notifying listeners as licensing agreements are established in individual countries. If you would like to be notified by email when Pandora is available in your country, please enter your email address below. The pace of global licensing is hard to predict, but we have the ultimate goal of being able to offer our service everywhere.
We share your disappointment and greatly appreciate your understanding.
Sincerely,
Tim Westergren
Founder