SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Southern jealousy reigns no more - the iPhone is here.

Last Wednesday, the popular Apple product hit the shelves in two Yellowknife stores, and across the country, as Bell Canada began selling the phone that can do it all.

Marc Witolla shows his brand-new iPhone, now available through Bell Canada. The wireless provider unveiled the iPhone on Nov. 4 across Canada, coinciding with opening of its GSM network, which brings them in line with competitor Rogers Wireless' offer to cellphone users across the country - Andrew Livingstone/NNSL photo

Yellowknife resident Marc Witolla was excited to be one of the first people to have the phone in his hands.

"I went the day it came," Witolla said, showing off the many things the iPhone can do, including a phrase translation tool for people travelling around the world. "I heard about it from a buddy who said they had them at the Bell store and I went to Roy's (Audiotronics) and they were there.

"It's basically replacing my iPod that I used to carry around with my cellphone."

Witolla said he made the decision about a year ago to switch over to the iPhone, but because Rogers Wireless was the only Canadian cellphone service provider offering the phone, he had to patiently wait for Bell to offer them.

"I liked the interface like the iPod touches," Witolla said, adding the programs he used on his Blackberry function much faster and better on his new toy. "There is a lot of stuff that an iPhone can do that others can't.

Wth over 30,000 applications to download to the phone, including the Internet telephone program Skype, it sets it above the rest.

John Henderson, NorthwesTel's director of consumer sales, said between the two stores in town they got a lot of units he didn't want to give a number, because of the inability to track stolen phones.

"We ordered enough to get us through the Christmas season," Henderson said, adding sales have been about what they expected them to be during the first few days of the phone being on sale, but wouldn't say how many were sold.

"We had a few people waiting the morning they went on sale, but not as many as I thought there would be, but Wednesday was a busy day. We've had a steady pace of sales."

Henderson said there were a couple glitches on opening day, including people trying to upgrade from their current phone to an iPhone were unable to do so.

"People who wanted a new phone, it was no problem, but people who wanted to upgrade, it was a tough go," he said, adding the glitch was fixed before the end of the day.

The new iPhone, along with any new phones purchased through Bell, will be required to use a Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card under Bell's new GSM (Global System for Mobile Communication) network that they unveiled the same day as the iPhone.

"These things are susceptible to theft, unlike the old ones," he said, pointing out old iPhone's have serial numbers embedded in them, so when they are stolen the company can shut them off as soon as the phone is reported stolen.

"In any of the new devices on our network, they have a card in them and all the tracking in on that card and all you need to do is pop it out."

Henderson said the phone will be a hot item for parents shopping for their kids this Christmas.

The price of the phone ranges in price from $199 to $399 with a contract and $599 to $799 if you purchase the phone outright, with phones ranging from 6 to 32 GB.