With millions of iPhones preordered worldwide, Apple's launch of the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus has techies, retailers and consumers buzzing with speculation. Articles investigating the end user's experience have flooded the Web with speculation.

How will 3-D Touch change our lives? Why didn't they address battery lifespan? How will iOS 9 differentiate itself from iOS 8?

But really, here is my question: What about us Canadians? Being a country that often faces delayed/nonexistent launches (ahem, McDonald's all-day breakfast), some aspects mentioned in Apple's keynotes have been slow to reach their friends up north.

Apple Pay

When Apple Pay was first introduced in Apple's fall 2014 keynote, users of the then-new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus were promised an efficient way of paying via their smartphone. This was the way of the future!

Canadians were told this would launch at a later date. A year has gone by. This past summer, Apple launched Apple Pay in the U.K., but Canada missed out.

Could it be that our banks were unable to come to the same agreements that banks overseas were able to reach? Others fear that adoption rates could be weak. Are consumers likely to trust their information to a brand new program? Would they prefer using traditional plastic debit and credit cards to make payments?

As it stands, only 1 in 7 U.S. consumers with an iPhone 6 have used Apple Pay. What's holding everyone else back? If adoption rates in the States are low, what does this mean for us? Would a Canadian version of Apple Pay be a success, or would we be getting into Apple Watch territory, with hush-hush results? We don't quite know.

This brings us to Samsung's situation. Looking to get in on the smartphone banking trend, it was announced that Samsung Pay would be hitting the Canadian market ... eventually. While the company plans to launch the service abroad, the Financial Post reports the Canadian market sits lower on their radar.

Given the pace of both brands, the introduction of a virtual payment platform appears to be neither an Apple problem, nor a Samsung problem. Perhaps they are waiting patiently for market conditions to improve, agreements to be made and for the latest operating systems to roll out. Circling back to Apple, anything announced in 2015 would have to account for another round of iPhone launches.

An annual replacement program

Let's move from paying with an iPhone to buying an iPhone.

Consumers often wonder when the time is right to upgrade their smartphones. When their contract ends? When their current phone dies? As Canadian cellphone contracts have been reduced from three years to two, phones face a shortened lifespan and a faster replacement cycle. Unlocked phones must also be taken into consideration.

As seen with Apple's recent keynote, consumers in the States now have the option of paying a monthly fee in order to upgrade their iPhone on a yearly basis.

"The upgrade plan is really just about recognizing that the process of buying an iPhone could be simpler and that there's a group of people that would like to upgrade every year," CEO Tim Cook said recently in an interview with BuzzFeed News.

American iPhone users may not want to pay several hundred dollars to receive a phone with no contract, and this program solves this, while keeping a steady demand for Apple's future iPhones.

Once again though, we're left wondering if and when this will be made available to Canadians. The thought seems quite bleak — the Financial Post recently reported that the Big Three Canadian carriers have snubbed the idea of a new pricing arrangement that would ultimately benefit Apple.

They cite Anthony Staffieri, chief financial officer at Rogers Communications: "Why would we do it? We see it as cash-dilutive for us, and eventually, the industry if everybody does it."

And there you have it. Little resistance from cellphone providers, keeping business as usual.

The BlackBerry factor

Years ago, consumers faced a great debate when selecting a new smartphone. Did they want the overall familiarity and comfort of having a touch keyboard, or were they daring enough to move to a touchscreen model?

While some remain loyal to some of BlackBerry 10's smartphones that offer a touch keyboard, Apple has faced increasing competition with Samsung and other companies using the Android operating system. So really, why should we even consider BlackBerry?

The BlackBerry Venice was recently spotted at the Toronto International Film Festival, sparking rumours that the upcoming slider phone would be an Android. Said to be releasing this fall, BlackBerry will once again find themselves flooded with competition as others consider the latest smartphone models on the market.

Will the Venice create a splash? It seems unlikely, but that doesn't bother BlackBerry CEO John Chen, who believes in taking a slower approach. Chen believes the company's patents will be the key to turning business around. After all, they have 44,000 of them. With a strong focus on innovation, and first-quarter revenues rising 150 per cent, BlackBerry seems confident about their future.

After all, innovation is important. I mean, we are wondering how Steve Jobs would feel about the Apple Pencil, especially after he pooh-poohed them in 2007.

Is innovation dead? Of course not. Look at how the iPod matured in the marketplace. Cellphones will still be in existence, but it's a matter of how they evolve.

While Apple Pay has seen its delays, wouldn't it seem natural if it's because Apple is looking to optimize the end-user experience? Cellphone providers might be declining an annual replacement plan now, but what if they are eventually overturned by consumer demand?

Regardless of the latest iPhone models being introduced, other companies are taking note, and may aim to introduce something similar, but better. New partnerships may also be formed to better the services offered. And surely, this will impact Canadians ... someday.