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“First, Apple rolled … the iPod Touch — a touchscreen iPod that essentially strips the cell phone chip out of the iPhone,” Moritz reports. “Then, in an unexpected move, Apple killed the 4-gigabit iPhone and slashed the price of the 8-gigabit iPhone by $200, to $399.”
“The move will add more evidence to the speculation that the iPhone, while causing quite a buzz, may not be selling as rapidly as some optimists had expected,” Moritz reports.
Full article here.
Yes, speculation is always much more important than facts. Apple’s iPhone, in July, its first full month on sale, grabbed nearly 2% of the mobile handset market in the U.S. This is unprecedented. Apple today announced that it is on track to meet its goal of selling one million iPhones before the end of September. “Wearing off?” Puleeze. The “iPhone buzz” hasn’t even begun. As many know, Wall Street loves to play games. So does Apple: hardball, obviously. Apple’s competitors lost their lunches (and breakfasts and dinners and snacks) today. In our opinion, if you look up “buying opportunity” in an up-to-the-minute dictionary, you’ll be greeted with a shiny Apple Inc. logo. Look up “Motorola” or “Palm” or any number of others today and you’ll see the same photo of a fresh, steaming crater.
[UPDATE: 9/6, 12:22am EDT: Corrected “2% of the mobile handset market in the U.S.,” not just “2% of the so-called ‘smartphone’ market in the U.S.” Even more impressive, Apple! Thanks, Dan.]
wow, i bought my iPhone on Aug 20…could have returned it Sept 3rd and bought the same exact model for $200 less. Not too thrilled about that.
But I am still impressed with the iPod lineup now.
MW: believe…as in I believe I have been taken to the cleaners.
Well MDN, I for one think too that this is not such a smart move by Steve-o. It pisses of a lot of . It’s too much too soon. Why the haste in bringing.
They will loose a lot of good will from possible partners e.g. mobile carriers in Europe who are still negotiating, not too mention AT&T;.
all the people who want to buy into this report can as far as i am concerned….
…i need the price to drop a bit more so i can make my 5th big stock buy at apple.
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Gotta hand it to the media in finding a negative spin on anything and everything, even when there’s good news to be had.
The world would be a much happier place without such pricks.
The funny thing is if people buy the new iPod instead of the iPhone, who cares? It’s all $$$ to Apple!!
Can’t wait for the quarterly results.
“The move will add more evidence to the speculation that the iPhone, while causing quite a buzz, may not be selling as rapidly as some optimists had expected,” Moritz reports.
I’d hardly call this “evidence” – as MDN notes, it’s speculation, not fact. Evidence would be, say, a memo from Apple lamenting poor iPhone sales. This is simply more fodder for the rumor mill.
Soon there will be a 16GB iPhone at $499 and then the morons will realize it was only a $100 price drop in the high-end. Of course, this could have been avoided if the 16GB was released today.
Actually the really interesting news is that the iPhone is now being classifed as an iPod on the main Apple webpage.
(Guess it’s to catch the buzz, rather than iPod & iPhone)
That should read “Why the haste in bringing a touch screen iPod?” I don’t understand it, it’s been on sale just 10 weeks! This kinda takes the shine of the iPhone. Also it will cut margins bigtime, hence the reaction on Wall Street.
BTW did I mention I had a qeasy feeling already yesterday and sold all my Apple stock. Will buy back in soon after this drop!
Wall St: (noun) group of shameless manipulators profiting by gambling illogically on other people’s intellectual property and wealth.
MW: ‘nature,’ as in __ of the beast
MDN Magic Word: lack
There is a lack of iPhones in the Europe!
Sell! Sell! Sell! AAPL as much you can! We will Buy! Buy! Buy! ALL of them!
NANO is hot.
Price drop on the iPhone is a MARKETING strategy that has always worked… it will MAKE people buy iPhone rather than new iPodTouch. GREAT move as products very similar… same Apple genius as with close iMac line-up when comparing models to others.
Drop in stock is common thing on most new products or adjustments.
Wait and see.
Whether apple releases a $499 iphone or not, the price drop is still $200. Ask those who got the phone a couple of weeks ago. (those who can’t even return)
I predicted that the shares would drop 4 bucks yesterday (as it ALWAYS doed no matter what stupid reason they give for it) . It went down 6…oh well reasonably close.
Supply and Demand 101 Folks. Supply is exceeding demand so lower the price by $200. No magic here. Apple clearly can’t shift iPhones at their previous price point. Overpriced.
Apple originally stated a goal of selling 10 million iPhones by the end of 2008. They then stated a goal of selling 1 million iPhones by the end of 2007. In a press release made available today, Apple has announced that they are on track to sell 1 million iPhones by the end of September.
And yet the Street insists that the iPhone has disappointing sales. Madness.
Why the hell would they take the volume switch off the side when they took the cell phone chip out? I Love the volume switch I hate having to touch the screen for the volume..
I’m one of the early adopters, and although the price drop stings, it’s not totally unexpected. It was bigger and sooner than most of us thought, but it was inevitable. I still love my iPhone. But it would be nice if Apple rewarded us early adopters with something… perhaps a new nano in the mail.
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Apple will soon intro the 3G iPhone-world with larger memory when it launches service in Europe in a month or two.
steve said theyll be selling there 1 millionth iphone this month, what were the expectations?
My initial thought was that they had to kill the low end iPhone to preserve flash storage supplies for the new iPod Touch, so they decided to streamline the iPhone line and reduce the price to continue their takeover of the Smartphone market and prevent supply chain issues with the new iPod Touch models
Once again, for the upteenth Apple announcement in a row,
“Buy on the sizzle, sell on the steak.”
Apple stock always goes up pre-annoucement, down post-announcement, and trends moderately upward or downward over the next week or two as the quality of the announcement is more moderately assessed.
I believe Mr. Jobs is going for the kill the smartphone market and is ready for mega-holiday sales as contracts expire over the next four months. He’s got anywhere from a six-month to two-year lead in technology on the phone and wants to be a major player in the non-commodity phone market too, to match the music market and the computer market.
I also believe that Apple stock has strong upward pull and stock manipulators twist the news (like this article) to drive the stock down, creating short-term buying and selling opportunities. Apple’s secretive nature on news and announcements plays into this too.
Sorry MDN, but NO company drops the price on anything by 1/3 if it’s selling at or beyond expectations. The market would demand the price to stay the same. The unit isn’t selling as well as expected. It may be selling well by smartphone standards, but smartphones are still a small percentage of the cell phone business.
This price drop was to save face, as Apple desperately needs to sell 1 million by the end of this month to meet that expectation. So the need to drop the price must have been great for Steve and Apple to do this, as this will not make for great press in the next few days.
The iPods will be overshadowed in the press by this price drop. Crazy stuff.
OK, Apple you suck! Common I bought 2 iPhones on Saturday and now just a couple of days later a 200 price drop. Its huge and needed but why drop the price after just 2 months on the market? Don’t get me wrong I am all for the price drop but screwing your loyal customers that forked out big bucks like that is just wrong. Guess steve jobs really thinks the customer can go F themselves what does he care that self righteous jerk off. I am not buying one more apple anything. F-off Jobs! Also, MDN your a real kiss up.
I for one am pissed about the price drop… I could have gotten an 8gb model for 33% less, or 20% less than my 4gb cost on 6/29. And now that it looks like a 16gb model is coming soon…. for the same price!
well the price drop puts iPhone squarely in range for me and my two sons. Still needs iChat though…frustrated that this is still not in there.