I got my Apple iPhone 8GB at approximately 6:15pm Eastern on Friday, June 29th.
In other words, I’ve had an Apple iPhone for as long as almost anyone outside of Steve Jobs and some other Apple and AT&T honchos; and around two weeks less than Apple’s anointed media triumvirate of Walt Mossberg, David Pogue, and Steven Levy.
So, I paid $599 and I’ve had my iPhone for 68 days before Apple dropped the price a tad over 33%, slicing off $200, and setting the price at $399 today.
I’ve had a few hours to think about it and I still don’t know what to think really.
From what I’ve heard, on and off the record, iPhone sales are doing well. Perhaps Apple is just being really aggressive and going for the quick kill in the “smartphone” market. Apple seems to be on track for their public goal of 1 million units by end of September at least. Independent estimates put Apple ahead of their longer-term goal of 10 million unites in 2008 (which I believed was extremely conservative even with the old price points or $499 and $599). By all accounts, the 4GB model barely sold compared to the 8GB (for the obvious reason that $100 for double the space is a no-brainer at prices starting at $499).
For the heck of it, I divided $200 by 68 days and figured out that it “cost” me about $2.94 per day to be an iPhone early adopter.
I feel like I got my money’s worth, but, let’s face it, I’m sort of a special case:
• I get to write it all off come tax time
• I have to get Apple stuff early, so I can understand it inside out and be able write about it
• I had to take pictures of fellow Apple heads sitting patiently in camping chairs
• I’m an Apple fanatic (duh)
I do like drawing a crowd in public with the iPhone, since I love showing off how it works and answering questions. I imagine that’ll be ending sooner than later now.
So, $2.94 per day. Uh, okay, I guess. The iPhone is a truly amazing device and I don’t at all regret getting one on the first day.
But, what about others who don’t get to write it off or who saved up for months to get one or who bought one on July 29th instead of June 29th? (By the way, that’s 38 days or $5.26 per day.)
Listen, if I felt a twinge when Jobs said $399 – and I did – I can imagine what others might be feeling.
Yes, early adopters know up front that there’s a price to be paid. Early adopters know that better models will come out and that prices will drop even as capabilities and features increase, but $200 — a 33% decrease after 68 days on the market — is extremely drastic and falls in the category of “above and beyond the call of early adopter duty.” It just does. Like almost everything else about the iPhone, it’s unprecedented — at least Apple’s consistent.
Here’s the thing: I’ll still be buying new Apple products upon release, but how many others will decide to wait after this? This could negatively affect sales of new Apple product launches.
So, iPhone early adopters, how do you feel today? Happy? Unaffected? Ambivalent? Disappointed? Upset? Reamed?
We are Steve Jobs 1,000,000 suckers who helped fill his pockets with our money.I want my 200 back!!!
We got ripped!
Kind of sucky, but oh well. I can’t say I really regret it, and I’ve only had it about a WEEK.
I should be pissed, but it is an AMAZING leap forward.
I knew the iPhone would go down in price when I bought it…and my wife’s. If Apple did something for the early adopters and gave some sort of credit, that would be a wonderful thing and I’d be appreciative.
On the other hand, again, I absolutely knew the price was going to drop and bought the phones anyway, so I can’t complain that much. Honestly I was more pissed when I bought a Macbook a few weeks before the core 2 duo upgrade.
I’m really pissed. I got ripped off.
Like a few months ago, I picked up a hooker who looked really clean, and I thought I got a great deal with a $15 knob polishing. Then a week later there were these little red splotches growing down there. I had absolutely no reason to think a $15 hooker would give me a disease, just like I had no reason to think Apple would drop the price of a $600 phone.
yeah, I feel pretty bummed. Bummed enough to make this my first actual post after months of reading.
Apple’s pricing policy:
Should Apple reduce its price on any shipped product within 10 calendar days of shipment, you may contact Apple Sales Support at 1-800-676-2775 to request a refund or credit of the difference between the price you were charged and the current selling price. To receive the refund or credit you must contact Apple within 14 business days of shipment.
Do a Google search on phone rental rates and come back and tell me Apple ripped you off.
Going from a WM5 “smart” phone to the iPhone: $200
Now being totally Microsoft free: Priceless
Worth every penny. AT $2.94 per day for my early adoption, worth way more than the same amount of money for a latté, a burger, a beer or whatever. Of course the price was going to come down. So what? As an AAPL shareholder, this is the right move.
I sent my feedback to Apple @ http://www.apple.com/feedback I would appreciate an iTunes gift card gesture in any denomination to reward returning Apple’s investment in iPhone R&D;.
More than the price drop, I’m annoyed with the new touch screen iPod…my iPhone will no longer be the unique conversation piece it has served till now!
As far as the $200 goes, I’m definitely feeling hosed as Apple has essentially admitted that they way overpriced it back in June. It still is a great piece of technology.
I bought on July 1 and have enjoyed the iPhone greatly. It’s a wonderful piece of technology, and I’m still very happy that I’ve got it. However … the $200 price drop after only 2 months put a very bitter taste in my mouth. I fully expected a drop in price and/or an increase in features … but about 6 months after the release of the iPhone, not 68 days later. Indeed, I fully expected when the 4 GB unit was wiped from the screen that a price-drop would be coming for the 8 GB unit. I thought they would drop the price back to $499 and then announce a new top-end model with more storage space (a 12 or 16 GB model). I could have stomached that more easily than just a price drop.
Historically, Apple’s timing has been horrible with me. Usually I buy a new Mac about 6 weeks before they release a major update/upgrade … just enough outside the “price guarantee” limit. This time I thought “I’ll buy when the iPhone first comes out, so at least I won’t have to worry about the price dropping or the phone being made obsolete for 6 or so months.” HA HA! I made it 8 weeks.
You should sue. I think you’ve got enough of a case to get a lawyer to file a class action.
Quit yer bitchin’. We all know that as early adoptors that we’d pay more than other people for the privilege to be the first on the block to own an iPhone.
It was worth every single penny.
I’ve had my iPhone since the middle of July, which is somewhere between $5.00 and $3.00, but I’m not bummed whatsoever. It’s just such an amazing product to have, I’m just happy that I can buy my wife and kid one now for $400 cheaper. It’s not like they expanded the HDD and dropped the price, or worse, added a GPS. THEN I would be pissed.
I have no issues here, The price I paid when the phone came out was worth it for me even though it was $600. I knew it was going to go down even if it was only 2 months later I still feel I bought a great NEW product and I knew how much that NEW technology was going to cost me. I never bought the iPhone under the notion it would stay at $600 for the next 6 months.
At the new price point I think there is no reason to complain about the price anymore and it should get a lot more people excited to buy the iPhone.
Now the area of concern would be to see a rev 2 iPhone to come out a month later that has GPS and or GSM. I greatly doubt this would happen but if it did, I think it would be WAY too soon and should have been done initially.
I actually feel we may even see a 16gb model at a higher price ($100 more) that may come out in the next month or shortly after.
So at this point, I feel fine and actually HAPPY of the new pricing…
http://www.macinfosys.com
Here’s all the proof you need to:1) show that Apple products are overpriced, 2) You mac lemmings will buy anything that they put out and always feel you got a great deal….suckers….
If nearly a million people bought it, it wasn’t overpriced.
Correction of GSM to 3G
Just pissed.
The new price makes sense in the new ipod lineup. It can’t be too much more than the new touch ipod. That said, $200 after 68 days is too steep. It leaves me a little upset and WILL harm new product launches. It should have been $100 now and another $100 before Thanksgiving (mid November). That would cover the Christmas shopping season and not be such a hit to early adopters.
What I really want to know is at what point Apple knew they were going to drop the price.
Apple DOES know how to optimize “demand-curve utilization.” But normally, when they cut prices, they offer a new high end for the early adopters to upgrade to. This time, the high end has just been lowered. I wonder why. Maybe there’s something new on its way later.
Maybe they just decided that the $599 point was too high. I doubt that though.
If it was a good deal a month ago (and it was), it’s not a “ripoff” today. Suck it up, that how technology works. You should be happy that the iPhone is now poised to make a huge noise this holiday season.
I feel worse about the $350 I had to pay to my old phone company for two early cancellations than for the extra money I paid to Apple.
i don’t feel sorry for you. i would have paid 2000 if it was available here in france. have been waiting since the newton’s demise.
@Daddy
At $599 the iPhone was on par with many of the “smart” phones out there. Even the RAZR was $600 when was first released. Now at $399 it’s a steal.
I am really unhappy with this. Everyone knows that sales volume decreases production costs and that leads to lower prices, but $200 in two months is too much too fast. Apple had sales projections and was not surprised by the sales; they have to plan more than two months out, which means this price cut was planned before June 29, and we did indeed get ripped off.
It even makes early adopters a laughingstock among Apple fans! A friend of mine bought an iPhone on my recommendation. Is he still a friend now? I don’t know. I was the only one in my office with an iPhone. Will anyone listen to me when I recommend Apple products now? Best to keep my mouth shut.
Apple lost a lot of goodwill today. They created 1,000,000 pissed-off customers who will no longer be so quick to advocate Apple products. This is a brainfart of Microsoftian proportions. It’s difficult to be an avid fan when you feel ripped off.
I just bought a new 24″ iMac with all the trimmings. It cost about $3,000. If they pull the same trick with the iMac that they did with the iPhone, I’d lose $1,000! The iMac was a lot more wonderful yesterday than it was today.
I was thinking about replacing my laptop when the new ones come out, but now I think I’ll wait for the refurbished ones. Or maybe I’ll go Linux.
Apple could recover from this debacle by giving us an early adopter award. They have high margins. It would be possible for them to give us something worth $200 retail that doesn’t cost them much. It would not only mollify us former fanbois, it would also be extremely good PR. And it might help them avoid the class-action lawsuit someone suggested
This was a business decision. Jobs got a good chunk of his development costs back by shafting the early adopters. Now he can make real money by vastly increasing the sales volume. Remember, he has to earn that $1.00/year salary.
I was one of the folks near the front of the line on June 29th to get an iPhone. I fully understand the “technology game” where once you buy, it’s obsolete. The thing that’s screwed up, and leaves a bad taste in my mouth, is that, all of us who were excited to buy the iPhone, who shelled out $599.00, who MADE it the phenomenon that it is, are getting screwed. The ones who are being “rewarded” by Apple are all the people who said, “I’m gonna wait and see”, or “I’d never pay that much”, or “I’ll get the next one after they’ve got all the bugs worked out”. They get to go out and buy an iPhone today for $399.00, less that 2 months later. I love my iPhone, but something stinks here… Apple should make this right. All of the “early adopters” should get a $200.00 Apple gift card or iTunes Music Store credit or something…
What a bunch of babies. The iPhone was worth every penny I spent for it when I gladly threw down $599 for it in early July. I didn’t regret it for a second back then, so why should I feel hosed now? I’m surprised Apple dropped the price so dramatically so quickly, but to me, it just shows that their going after their competitors with extreme prejudice and bloodthirst.
If all of you suddenly regret the “early adopter tax” you paid, then it obviously wasn’t worth that much to you when you bought it, so why did you buy it?
Welcome to the cell phone market Apple fans. I bought a Blackberry 7290 from Rogers in Canada a couple years ago for $399 w/2 year contract. within 6 weeks, Rogers was offering it for $99 after $300 service credit. Called Rogers to see what they could do for me, and was politely told to go fly a kite.
In the cell phone market, these kinds of price drops happen all the time. A phone that sells for $500 when it launches is $99 a year later. If Apple wants to play in this game, they have to be competitive. We’re just going to have to get used to it, and if it bothers you, then don’t be an early adopter.
I think people should stop whinging. If it was not worth $600.00 to you when you bought it, then you should not have spent the money.
If you only bought an iPhone so that you could show off to people, then you have bigger problems than thinking Apple cheated you of $200.00
F*cked, reamed and pissed is how I feel.
I know one thing, I will NEVER buy another Apple product upon release ever again. I was there on day one to buy Jaguar, Panther and Tiger. On day one to buy the first iPod shuffle and Mac mini. On day one to buy the first Intel iMac. Never again though.
As they say, Fool me once shame on you, but fool me twice…
Steve Jack, I commend you!
I think that this is the first time that I’ve ever read something by you that even slightly suggests that Apple may have done something wrong.
I am very disappointed by this move from Apple today.
Not only is it unprecedented, it is very un-Apple like. I normally take comfort in knowing that Apple products never go on sale and that their monetary value will remain through the normal course of the products or current generations life cycle.
This is a slap in the face to Apple’s most loyal customers.
A 33% price-cut in 60 days is too much, too soon, anyway you slice it.
I will never be an early Apple adopter again.
Why is everyone so upset?
This isn’t JUST an early adopter issue, it is a technology issue…
I bought a brand new Pioneer 43in Plasma a year ago for AU$5000 (best price from average retail of around $5,600), today the NEW model with a built in HD tuner (I had to pay another AU$600 for the HD tuner) is approx. AU$3500!!! So in one year I could have saved AU$900, which is approx. AU$2.47 a day…
Should I Bitch, Whine & Moan!!!!
No, just reality peoples, suck it up and get over it – you wanted to be FIRST with an iPhone, you WERE!!!
You ALWAYS pay a premium to be the kid that is first on the block showing off a new shiny toy!
As a AAPL shareholder I have NO ISSUE with Apple doing this if it protects their earnings estimates. I don’t care if they sell 100 iPhones and make 50% per phone in profits, or 200 iPhones and make 25% per phone in profits. In fact in terms of long term strategy of Apple securing a place in the smartphone arena, the second option is better, as it draws in more third parties for developing accessories and software etc (yes I know software is limited at the moment), as they have a bigger potential customer base to develop for!!! Also this strategy INCREASES the number of OS X installed devices out there compared with the first, which AGAIN poses well for Apple’s ENTIRE business!
Sometimes you have to “buy” market share, I am sure once Apple establishes itself it will move margins more towards their preferred 30-40% range.
In fact margins MAY still be OK, as the estimates at iPhone launch were approx. 50%+, so even with this $200 price drop on a $599 phone with a 50% margin, you new margin is 25%:
$599, with 50% margin – cost is $299.50, PROFIT is $299.50
IF (and that is a big IF) costs remain the same @ $299.50, new price is $399, Profit = $99.50 = 25% margin. If Apple have negotiated even BETTER pricing from their suppliers, then the margins may still be above 30% which is pretty good.
Remember that Apple ALSO get a payment for EACH and every iPhone from AT&T;, PLUS on ONGOING revenue stream EACH MONTH from AT&T;, and again, the theory that it is better to have MORE iPhone customers each resulting in TRAILING payments to Apple makes PERFECT business sense.
I hope the dullards sell off AAPL MORE in the next few days, I’ll be pouring some cash into pick up their offloaded, and hence under valued shares for them.
my 2 cents,
Luke
PS – excuse any grammar/spelling, rushing to get to a meeting!
The ones bitching the loudest probably couldn’t afford the iPhone in the first place and will be making payments for another six months…
As an apple shareholder I am grateful to you early adopters just the same. I wanted the iPhone to succeed in a big way and you made that possible.
So thank you.
MikeK,
SteveJack has taken Apple to task before.
Some examples:
http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/8273/opinion/
http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/5445/opinion/
http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/495/opinion/
Oh sorry just had to post about the guy that is going to go Linux!
I love you types, I’m upset with Apple, I am going to throw out the baby with the bathwater and drop Apple completely and waste my time and life “enjoying” linux!
Similar Chicken Little types were bitching about the PPC – Intel move, and the Mac OS – OS X move etc etc
I’d say please go, but I know an idle threat when I see one…
As an AAPL shareholder, I do want to say THANKS for the revenue for your iPhone and iMac though (and all the recommends to others too!)
Good luck with RedHat!
Luke
It’s just bad business to treat your most loyal customers like suckers. I am expecting to hear about a rebate–maybe a credit at the Apple Store?–very soon. It would cost them only a fraction of the cash they caused to be squandered.
It sucks (price decrease). SJ is biting hand that feeds him (one way to look at it). That is business. We always get more out of our best customers. Especially, early adopters. I bought 2 iPhones on release at $599 price. I also bought a lot of APPL shares at considerably less than it sells for now…..long time prior to release. Do I care about price decrease now? NO. I am early adopter and know I will pay more for it early on but will benefit if I am market savvy and believe in company I invest in. If early adopters do not invest early…when they see a winning product…you lose. I can send my kids my kids to college on my early adoption experience. Who cares about $100 here or there. If you adopt early and think you have a winner…invest. If you don’t….shame on you. Why should they not try to extract best price they can based on what market can bare?It sucks (price decrease). SJ is biting hand that feeds him (one way to look at it). That is business. We always get more out of our best customers. Especially, early adopters. I bought 2 iPhones on release at $599 price. I also bought a lot of APPL shares at considerably less than it sells for now…..long time prior to release. Do I care about price decrease now? NO. I am early adopter and know I will pay more for it early on but will benefit if I am market savvy and believe in company I invest in. If early adopters do not invest early…when they see a winning product…you lose. I can send my kids my kids to college on my early adoption experience. Who cares about $100 here or there. If you adopt early and think you have a winner…invest. If you don’t….shame on you. Why should they not try to extract best price they can based on what market can bare?
I bought my iPhone on day one and stood in line like many of you, not all night but about 2 1/2 hours. It was a good time bonding with my fellow Mac addicts. I am not thrilled that we early adopters paid $200 more then but the drastic price decrease was a shocker! I feel like we were paying to be beta testers, we have been promised updates (someday) and before that day came the iPhone price was slashed over 33%!
It really kills the pride of ownership, Apple should do something to compensate us a nice iTunes gift card, that would cost them virtually nothing but make us feel better about the situation or free Apple Care, I mean hell it only adds one year of repairs.
I dobut they will do anything becasue it would admit they were wrong in the first place but it would be the “right” thing to do.
I do like my iPhone, its fun to use. But I am saddened by what Mr. Jobs did and feel that we are owed something.
Meeting cancelled!
@ Ne14tennis: YES you do have to wonder how they are FEELING ripped off if they were willing to pay $600 for the iPhone they SURELY felt it was worth that at the time, if NOT, they are f&^ked in the head for buying something they didn’t feel warranted the price. If it was worth $600 to you even a DAY ago, it shoudl STILL be worth that today, even if someone can buy it for less!!! And as noted use the return/credit policy if purchased within the last 14 days.
FACT is the bitching and moaning has more to do with feeling like a goose for wanting to show off a new toy so early and being caught out…
As per my example, at the time I felt the plasma I bought was worth what I paid for it, and I still do. I KNOW I wouldn’t pay that again if I was buying NOW, and I WOULDN’T feel it was worth that IF I WAS BUYING NOW, but for when I did buy, that WAS the ONLY price, and as I WANTED IT THEN, and couldn’t wait until NOW, then that was the price I was happy to pay.
GET OVER IT – you wanted it toot sweet, you paid a premium for that!!!
@ Rob, what about fooling you 8 times (including the iPhone with your other examples) as you have suggested by your post?!?! Is it REALLY Apple that has the problem buddy?
6 cents and counting.
Luke
PS – I am in Australia, we will get the iPhone in most likely Q1 ’08… by then I reckon it will be another US$50 off the price (or same price bigger capacity) and TRUE 3G… I WILL be an EARLY adoptor for Australia (except the people running iPhones now with hacks), and I KNOW I will pay MORE than my friends that wait a few months, I DON’T CARE, I WANT TO BE ONE OF THE FIRST, and I wont bitch and moan when Apple drop their prices, cause I WILL ONLY buy the iPhone IF I believe the PRICE is reasonable AT THAT TIME.
@icancsf
What?
You got the privilege to beta test a product as well as fund the free iPhone for Apple workers. Whats wrong with that? LOL
This really sucks! But really after the initial steam wore off, i guess it not all that bad, except now all the early adaptor aren’t so cool any more… JUST SUCKERS!
Thanks Steve Jobs thanks…
P.S. anyone want to buy my apple share, I dont feel like being a shareholder now……
I’m not upset at all that the price was lowered. I love the idea that more people can experience owning an iPhone. Besides, what’s $200 to people who can drop $600 on a cellphone?
Steve Jobs Q&A;- “That’s what happens in technology”
From USA Today:
t’s not every day you slice the price of a popular product by one-third.But Apple CEO Steve Jobs did just that Wednesday with the iPhone. By the end of the day, the combination cellphone, iPod and Internet device was available for $399, down from $599. Additionally, Apple refreshed its iPod line with new models.
Q (USA Today:) Q: What do you say to customers who just bought a new iPhone for $599? Sorry?
A: (Steve Jobs:)That’s technology. If they bought it this morning, they should go back to where they bought it and talk to them. If they bought it a month ago, well, that’s what happens in technology.
Sad. Very Sad.
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/2007-09-05-jobs-qanda_N.htm?csp=34
I have used Apple products since 1984. Apple have added value to every product I have purchased from them, & mostly free upgrades in all that time. I have been an early adopter (original Mac SE 40 to 1st gen Blackbook) & have been treated better by Apple in support, upgrades &Tco;over all, than any tech company including Nokia, Samsung, Microsoft, Hi-Grade (laptops), Sharp, Motorola, Phillips, Toshiba & even Sony in their good days.
I know who I’m stickin with.
Ps: This will be the biggest Holiday season for Apple yet.
well i love my iPhone but a $200 price cut is really big and i dont like that my just released phone is $200 cheaper.
i hope apple gives some kind of refund
I expected this price drop. Anyone who didn’t is naive. Some of my friends told me to wait a couple of months, but I wanted an iPhone day one and I’m fine with it.
If I had a product that took me years to make, lots of money spent in development, and it was an absolutely new thing that would be impossible to predict how good it would sell…
I would want to have a bigger margin at the outset.
I think the iPhones that were built in June sold out too soon. That couldn’t be more reassuring. Now, the material prices for the same technology must have gone down a little. And there are new iPods that steal some of the thunder from the iPhone.
It makes perfect sense from a business perspective to slash the price to a less “anxious” price point that can compete with Apple’s own iPod touch.
Add to this that the iPod touch will be sold internationally months before the iPhone can become available. It will also sell to those who are locked in with non-AT&T;carriers and with those that have a tighter budget in the US. This is essentially going to be publicity for the iPhone. People are more likely to call it “phone-less iPhone” than “iPod touch”.
Anticipation for the iPhone internationally, and immediate acceptance once it is released can only get better this way.
Then comes the technical issue of 3G and battery life, which would mean that the next batch of iPhone, especially those sold internationally, will have more expensive components.
So I would expect an 8G and a 16G iPhone with 3G capability to be released by the end of the year. The price points would have to be below the $600 mark. So if the “more-expensive-to-make” 8G model stays at $399, and the 16G goes for $599, it would be extremely reasonable pricing.
All this while maintaining at least 25% margins. This is how it should be in my opinion.
I’m not too pleased about the huge price drop. Some sort of compensation would be a nice gesture, though I’m not holding my breath.
And the idiot who suggested a class-action lawsuit is part of the problem in America today. There’s no merit and would be a waste of time. We’d end up getting $25 back after the lawyers get paid…
Great article on USA Today then. So don’t hold your breath about a refund or compensation. You knew the price and you wanted it. So stop complaining.
Im ready for a class-action lawsuit are you
I agree with Harvey. I’m also looking to replace my desktop, and was just about ready to pony up for a new iMac before year-end. But after seeing what Apple did with the iPhone (and yes, I purchased 2 8GM iPhones back in July, thinking Apple would not, COULD NOT drop the price significantly any time soon), I think it may be worth my while to just wait it out and see whether iMac prices drop as well. I hope Apple finds it worthwhile to give up lots of potential Mac Christmas buys for a few more iPhones…
Apple has a marketshare strategy for the iPhone, so they will continue to push the price downward (but not as dramatically as today’s price drop). At some point, the $399 customers will be complaining when Apple drops the price again.
In my opinion as an Apple customer for over 29 years, it is not necessary to purchase every new gadget and gizmo on the launch date. But the $599 iPhone early adopters can rightfully claim that they were among the first to acquire a breakthrough technology.
Like almost everyone else I feel foolish and used. I expected the price to drop a bit perhaps after Macworld in January but, geez, the new isn’t even worn off of my iPhone yet. I’m glad the price went down but I have to wonder if Apple didn’t consider that they just rewarded a lot of their customer’s loyalty with a kick in the groin.
What are you fanboys crying about? MS is knocking 50 bucks off the Zune! They should raise the price – the Zune is that good!
Jobs to Apple customers:
“Bend over, bitch”
I think a nice $200 itunes credit would make me not feel as bad! It is very not cool to do something like this to your customers.
I felt great about my iphone purchase now I have buyers remorse. Not because of the product but because I didn’t wait a little longer to get something. Bad move apple, this will probably effect the early adopters for future products (especially expensive ones).
If anyone purchased an iPhone in the past 14 days you can still get the discount.
>Jobs to Apple customers:
>
>”Bend over, bitch”
Exactly. The problem is Apple’s customers (like Luke in Oz) are willing participants. Completely submissive and ready to be taken advantage of.
Apple is the new Microsoft.
This is commonplace in the mobile phone industry, so I’m not really surprised at all. Anyone buying a phone within the first couple months of availability is going to pay a steep premium, and then the price drops in a big way.
It would be really nice if Apple would throw a bone to the early adopters, though, if only a small store credit or something.
Also: I’d be beyond surprised if that price-cutting practice spills over to the Mac or iPod lines. Those are mature, stable lines, where it makes much more sense to maintain price points and improve the specs. Keep in mind that a revised iPhone would require new FCC approval, and I’d guess that Apple would wait to submit it until they announced it. With no new models, this gives them a big boost going into the holiday season.
Absolutely no regrets whatsoever. I also bought a IIsi back in the day only to see the price drop by $1000 30 days after I bought it, back when I was making $7.25/hr. It’s technology… that’s what happens.
Can’t say I’m surprised to see so many fsck-ing whiners here though. Apparently a lot of people here have never heard of capitalism. Of course they probably approve of our fantastically healthy entitlement society, too.
@MPC Guy
Mate I am not a “willing participant” to get RIPPED off.
I SAID (COMPREHEND MAN) that I will pay what I THINK/FEEL is a fair price for the item at the time, and when the price drops I will not bitch and moan, because I was WILLING to pay that price when I chose to.
IF Apple release the iPhone in Australia at a price I am UNWILLING to pay and don’t feel represents value for money, then I WILL NOT be an early adopter.
I OFTEN criticise Apple Australia for price gouging with exchange rate dodginess, and when they have I have simply REFUSED to buy their product (or picked the product up during overseas travels).
That is my point mate – if you are WILLING and ABLE (maybe that is the problem too) to fork out US$600 for a iPhone then as long as you weren’t paying that JUST TO BE FIRST, but because you felt it was WORTH $600 at the TIME, then that was, and STILL IS the fair price that you paid.
If you TOOK A GAMBLE that the price would drop but NOT THAT QUICK, so you bought early, then AGAIN that is NOT Apple’s problem that was a POOR GAMBLE by YOU – GET OVER IT!!!
As for the people comparing to iMacs etc, again you are all ignorant of technology.
The iMac is a STABLE platform compared to the iPhone.
It is not USING a TOTALLY new interface and new technology, and so it is NOT likely that you will EVER see even 10% price drops within a development cycle, let alone 33%!!!
The iPhone is a REVOLUTIONARY product, it is BRAND NEW, it will have price drops that are not only significant, but relatively QUICK in the next few months.
It is ALSO different from the iPod situation. Apple was essentially “creating” that market, as the competition was crap, and the penetration of the technology was low at the time (still is relatively).
MOBILE PHONES are an established market, approaching commodity status.
Apple has launched a PREMIUM product into that market, but in order to gain traction and critical mass, they need MARKET SHARE.
OF COURSE Apple were going to charge like wounded bulls when they launched, they knew if they priced it at US$800 some of you same people whinging would STILL have bought it (BTW I could have bought an iPhone when I was in the US and used it here with a hack, but I didn’t see that as VALUE for money).
But if they want to negotiate HARDBALL with carriers in the EU and ASIA (particularly) then they need to be able to show that the iPhone has SO MANY CUSTOMERS that the carriers should be BEGGING Steve to take their revenue in a revenue sharing agreement.
When I say I will be an early ADOPTER in Australia, I ONLY do that knowing that MOST of the early adoption costs have been worn by US customers.
IF Apple had launched a US$600 iPhone, 1st GENERATION, 2.5G (EDGE) in Australia the same day as they did in the USA, which on form Apple Australia would have charged AU$900 I can ASSURE you I would still have my money in my pocket.
With the new price I’d STILL have my money in my pocket – I don’t DO 1st GEN products.
But KNOWING the iPhone launched in Australia will be at least 2nd GEN, and most likely 3G, then YES I am willing to be an “early adopter” for my market.
You want Apple to run like a charity!
NO they are a business. They MUST sell a product at the highest price they can.
IF you had all been SO UNWILLING to pay US$600 for the iPhone they would have sold NONE, and had to drop their price.
Which brings us AGAIN back to the fact YOU WERE WILLING to pay that price, so unless you admit to the fact you are totally STUPID and pay more for something than you think it is ACTUALLY worth (and as asked, if you can’t afford $200, why buy a $600 phone?).
Face facts – the whining is about EGOS, nothing else.
As they say “fools rush in”.
I admit I’d be upset with MYSELF if I had paid $600 on the first day (or even more so JUST before an iPod announcement event – how thick are you people!?), but not Apple. I may wish to transfer some blame, but the blame lies with the purchaser if they are unhappy – as they say “buyer beware” – and that has nothing to do with being submissive – EXACTLY the opposite!
5.33 cents (Sorry it should have been 8 cents – but I decided to slash my prices 33%!!!!)
Luke
I had a feeling there would be some who had nothing better to do than bitch about this. Oh well, they’re in good company, as Paul Thurrott is all over it as well.
I took Paul to task, and have a solution for the whiners, here:
A 200 Dollar iPhone Question Not Worth 2 Cents.
Anyone who says “I expected this price drop” lies through his teeth. Nobody expects Apple to cut the price of a brand new product by one third just after two months of its release date. 10 to 15% after six to nine months? Sure. 33% before three months? No way.
And to Galloway and others: This is not about how much a price drops shortly after your purchase. This is about a major price reduction shortly after the release of a brand new product.
@Rory
FINALLY someone that gets it…
iMAC, iPod, PowerMac are all mature stable lines, no need or likelhood of massive price reductions.
And the point about FCC is also spot on. Apple could have squeezed more capacity into the iPhone if needed, but that is a NEW certification for a telecommunications device, and that is why it will be done later, and as per last time, not submitted to FCC until they announce it, so as to prevent leaks once the information is submitted to the FCC.
As you have noted, this gives them the Holiday Season lift (and market share PUSH) they needed WITHOUT a new model.
If the US is anything like Australia, a lot of NEW PHONES are also purchased through the holiday season.
There are two seperate issues here:
1) Was this a good move for Apple as a business? – YES
2) Are people pissed off because they feel like idiots for taking a gamble on pricing this early for a NEW product/technology that didn’t pay off? – YES
my 4.44 cents (ANOTHER 33% off – see Apple aren’t the worst at doing this!!!! Does that make you feel better?)
Luke
“A 33% decrease after 68 days on the market — is extremely drastic and falls in the category of ‘above and beyond the call of early adopter duty.’
Tissue?????
It is the price you paid to walk have walked around for the past 2 months with your iPhone.
If you were reading something besides your own forum, you will will see that most technological experts (real ones, not our pal Robbie) predicted a price drop in a few months. Most even suggested waiting for the V2 product.
I’m glad I didn’t buy because AT&T;doesn’t really work for me and indeed the iPod Touch is the product that I wanted from the start (which I have just ordered and prob have to wait until next month for it to get here).
$200 isn’t shit. You walked around like you were Joe-Cool the past 2 months – Live and Learn.
I quite like this expression, which seems somehow appropriate today:
“The early bird catches the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.”
It’s funny – the majority of people saying shut the $#!@ up about the $200 price decrease didn’t buy an iPhone during the gouging period. Wonder if they’d be saying that if they’d bought one a month or so back? Guess they were too tight back then, and don’t mind rubbing it in that they got a $200 discount to boot. Humans are pretty cruel – but I’m not worried. We’ll probably be wiped out by an asteroid or something for sure, simply becasue we’re too focused on crap like this rather than technology to save the planet. Morons.
Anyway, this drop is not something which will be easily forgotten. People will learn from this and won’t be so willing to rush out again for Apple’s newest and greatest. It’ll be interesting to see what happens next time.
The way I see it – the unwritten Apple purchasing rule is to buy, at the earliest, 3rd generation the week of it’s release. That’ll maximise the functionality and performance to price ratio. Sure, they keep getting after that too, but if you’ve waited, 3rd generation is (usually) the sweet spot.
“The ones bitching the loudest probably couldn’t afford the iPhone in the first place and will be making payments for another six months…”
Thats me, despite being disabled and low income I spent my savings to get an iPhone because I liked Apple products that much. I’m a recent switcher. the iPhone was the equal of a MONTHS income for me,
Now I’m sorry I left Ubuntu. I don’t like being made a fool of. If it was a drop for a new model, that would be one thing, but this is simple ass banditry. I left Windows out of disgust with this behavior, and I’m not going to suffer and scrimp for Apple product if this is how I’m going to be treated. I wonder how Ubuntu does on a Macbook Pro?
I’m going back to Ubuntu, as soon as I can DL the OS again, and off Mac Hardware when this overheating aluminum monstrosity burns itself up, I’m betting about two months after the warranty runs out.
This is a great thing. I’m an early adapter. The value the iPhone has added to my life exceeds $2.95 per day. But beyond that, for all of us who love the products that Apple produces, this will allow Apple to take a more dominant lead in the market. As Apple takes a greater lead the rest of the world will have to make more room for Apple people. This is Good!!!!!!
At first, I was extremely annoyed at having “wasted” $400. (My partner and I each have an iPhone.) While I knew an upgrade would come out and render my Precious obsolete, I didn’t really expect the price to drop to much. But upon reflection, I think it’s a very good thing. It will increase the numbers of iPhones on the market and make it important for Apple to keep it up to date and to add features. It will encourage companies to iPhone optimize their Web 2.0 applications to work even faster on Safari, and the iPhone. Yeah, that cash would be nice, but it would be far worse if the iPhone were being treated as a “hobby” like the AppleTV, which I love, but which is a deeply flawed concept that seems to be going nowhere.
Ok, so Stevo officially says a big “$#!@ you” to everyone who bought the iPhone at a premium price (not to mention that they’d expected to drop the price – go see the NYT for that remarkable anecdote from the day’s proceedings.)
Let’s see… will everyone who bought an iPhone for $600 line up for a week at Apple’s next “latest and greatest” product launch? I wonder how much goodwill has been lost today?
Steve also says that he expects people to re-buy their music on iTunes since he’s bought his Dylan stuff again coz he’s too lazy to rip his CDs. Well, when you are a billionaire, I guess a few hundred notes on Dylan songs isn’t a big deal.
Personally I think it’s a bogus comment – do you really think Steve pays for his music on iTunes and secondly, the comment is equivalent to the hi-fi salesman saying he has the same pair of speakers in his home coz he loves them so much! I guess masses of people will be suckered in.
It seems that Steve and Apple are heading back to their old arrogant selves from the ’80s. I wonder what the bad karma will cost them this time? I guess there’s no Microsoft Windows there to rain on this parade, but you never know who’s around the corner.
I love Apple, I really do, but sometimes they go waaay to far and push the boundaries of what’s morally acceptable.
SJ is basically an asshole – no doubt about it.
It doesn’t matter how early adopters “feel.”
Apple has sold about one million iPhones so far. It’s a good number, but it’s a small number compared to the 20 million or more iPhones Apple will sell by the end of 2008. Apple needs to focus on and make decisions based on the future to reach those goals, not be overly influenced by customers who have purchased an iPhone in the past. Even at the new price, you know Apple’s margin will be at least 25%, not including the extra revenue from AT&T;. So any decision that gets future iPhones into more hands is a good decision. Some of those early adopters may be upset, but as a group, they are the last people who will stop recommending the iPhone to others. If anything, the $200 price drop will help them encourage more of their friends to buy one.
Wow, so many paradoxes…
I like it when my Apple shares go up, but I hate it when the cost of Apple products goes down especially after I’ve just purchased mine!
To everyone who’s whining about this price drop, at least your weren’t someone who purchased Shake just before Apple took a machete to the price or Aperture.
I many be an American [my note: actually if you’ve got an iPhone, you at least have to live in America surely] and I regularly blather on about how the benefits of a free-market economy, but when it comes and bites me in the ass I cry like a baby!
Well, congratulations – you’ve finally experienced what we experience every day in the UK – especially from Apple – and you tell us to “suck it up” because “we’re all Euro-trash socialists” or somesuch. I expected this price cut in January when the Euro editions of the phone came out, but if it comes now I’m deliriously because it makes so many people – who were so smug about getting their iPhone – so unhappy.
The phone was worth $499 or $599 to you when you bought it. And yet now – because Apple has obviously seen that a) it can sell them for less and still make a profit and b) completely fsck the other smartphone manufacturers into the bargain – you seem to think you’re entitled to a rebate because you couldn’t wait to be part of SPJ’s latest stratagem for world domination.
There’s a concept called impulse control: some of you should try it.
Didn’t buy one. Now it’s far more attainable. Kudos from me.
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I certainly knew the price on the iPhone would drop quickly which is exactly why I bought mine shortly after it came out. I didn’t want to wait in line, but a week after the hype died down I bought one. I did that because I wanted to get some use and some first adopter bragging rights before the price fell. And I didn’t want to feel like an idiot buying it only 15 days before the price went down.
Normally, when I buy a new iMac, Powerbook, or Power Mac (which I do often) I wait six months for the price to go down and for any bugs to get worked out. But I have the luxury of doing that because my old Mac is usually working pretty well. In the case of my iPhone, I hated my cell phone and couldn’t wait to have real mobile internet access. In fact, I couldn’t wait a day.
It should be noted for anyone feeling ripped off by the $200 price cut that for several weeks you could buy a refurbished iPhone for $100 less at the Apple store. The Apple store always is the best deal for anyone who has any money issues with what kind of Apple product they can afford. Anyone with money issues should have waited a few weeks an bought a refurbished one, and they would have saved $100 in pain. (Speaking of which, you can now buy a 4G iPhone for only $299.)
Those who enjoyed their iPhones but now feel cheated should really consider that Apple took a giant financial gamble making a wonderful new product that could have failed miserably for a variety of reasons. It’s quite possible people might not have been willing to pay a premium for a cool product that was still tied to a poorly run cell phone service. (I love my iPhone, but hate ATT already. They’ve been nothing but problems in set up and billing and frankly are too expensive.) I don’t think this is an issue of gouging first adopters, but charging a reasonable price for what the phone actually cost in R&D;and manufacturing set up.
For those who think the price drop reflects poor iPhone sales, I’d guess it’s exactly the opposite. If the iPhone did not appear to have mass market potential, Apple might continued to milk it’s hard core fan base and keep the price up as a specialty product. (After all, it is already the top selling smart phone, but that is a fairly small market.) I think the large price drop indicates that Apple thinks it can sell every one of these things it can crank out of the factory. At $399 it’s no longer a speciality product but moving to mass market appeal. And, sorry folks, more price drops are likely. (You can buy it for $349 refurbished and ATT might start offering deals for people willing to pay for longer contracts.)
Now, I’m sure Apple could have avoided some hurt feelings by just dropping the price $100 and then waiting a couple months to drop it another $100. But that would have been stupid for two reasons:
First, Apple had no choice but to make the huge price cut because of serious competition on the horizon that could have killed iPhone sales. The upcoming Zune phone? No, Apple’s own product, the new iPod Touch. Much as I love my iPhone, there is a serious possibility that I wouldn’t have bought an iPhone if I had a choice between it and the iPod Touch. Because at least half the reason I wanted the iPhone was for the internet and portable computer functions that the Touch has in spades. And as I’ve said, I hate ATT. So if it came to a choice between a $599 iPhone (with ATT subscription) and a iPod Touch for $399, I probably would have bought the Touch and waited six months or more for a new iPhone (hopefully with GPS and unlocked). In fact, even with both the 8G iPhone and the 16G Touch the same price, if I had a choice today I might go with the Touch. (Having not had the pleasure of my last two months of seeing how great an Apple designed phone can be.)
The second reason is that if Apple had slowly dropped the price on the iPhone, so as to save the feelings of some unhappy first adopters, they wouldn’t be enjoying all this wonderful publicity. Yeah, this is some huge mistake by Steve Jobs. He managed to break into a completely new market with a product everyone said was over priced, sell almost a million of them in a couple months, become the top selling smart phone maker, and now…
Everyone is yelling because the iPhone is now too cheap!
Boy, what a misstep!
Out of almost million people who bought the iPhone before the price jump, I’d bet at least half of them don’t care a bit that the price fell. It was an expensive product, and I doubt most of the people that bought it worry about a couple hundred bucks. But even if a million people are pissed off that they paid too much…
… how many Apple fans do you think there are that are thrilled that they waited. How many do you think are patting themselves on the back now saying, “I knew it! Now’s the time to buy!” How many are going to be buying them for the Christmas season thinking they’re a huge bargain. How many non-Apple fans are going to hear all the bitching about the iPhone being two cheap and decide they should look into it.
And the danger Apple faces from those pissed off customers that felt they got ripped off by buying early? Maybe next time they’ll wait and not get pissed off if they can’t afford the price of admission into the new technology club. Hard to see how long term that wouldn’t be a good thing for Apple. Oh, you’re so angry you’re going to switch to Linux or buy a Treo? Have fun, we’ll see you back soon.
I suggest that those angry that Apple gouged early iPhone adopters mount a campaign to warn buyers of the new iPod Touch. $399 dollars for a wide screen touch computer that doesn’t have a camera or a phone or the ability to access the internet from cell towers? What a rip off!
Who does Apple think it’s fooling? If it can sell a iPhone for $399 then the iPod touch is a huge rip off. How much does an extra 8G’s cost? Almost nothing! Anyone who buys a Touch right now is bound to feel ripped off in a few months when the price drops.
Also, anyone who seriously thinks about buying a new iPhone and thinking they’re getting a great deal should be warned: Apple is working on another iPhone, it’s a lot better and will probably be just as cheap as the one available now. So you might want to consider waiting until January.
Jobs is a brilliant chess player in the technology market. There is no doubt he could have introduced the iPod Touch before the iPhone. But he took advantage of it’s amazing technology and design and broke into a very tough new market. Many people predicted, and even more hoped, that Apple would fail.
He charged a lot to customers for the privilege of having the coolest thing around. But also took a huge risk when a iPod Touch would have been a safe profitable bet. He’s cut out a small share in a giant new market. And now he’s made a bold move by slashing prices and going after a larger share.
I’m thrilled to have paid an extra $200 bucks to be a part of it. And now thrilled that I’ll pay $200 bucks less to buy iPhones for Christmas gifts.
Life sucks!
I got my Powerbook G4 one month before the apple announcement to intel processors!
So when I think in the $200, bucks that some people “loosed” I just can think that is nothing comparing to what it happened to me. Now I have a very expensive computer, almost obsolete in 2 years… I cannot even run imovie… What can I say? Life sucks doesn’t it?
Regarding all the posts about erosion of goodwill etc:
1) Apple has YET to sell 1 million iPhones
2) The customer feedback was the strongest (most positive) they had ever got for a product
3) Apple WILL END UP selling likely 100’s of millions of iPhones (well not this 1st GEN model, but the iPhone brand)
4) MOST of the early adopters are FANATICS
So I’d see it as:
1) Due to points #1 and #3, RELATIVELY there are not that many customers to piss off (assuming 100% of them end up pissed off)
2) 100% of them WON’T be pissed off, because of points #2 and #4
No brainer really – onwards and upwards AAPL!!!
OH AND – if you are THAT pissed off about this, put your iPhone on e-Bay for a foreign buyer, they will pay MORE than the $399 price, so you will likely MAKE your $599 back, and then go out and buy another NEW one at $399!!!!
See this is a grown up (capitalist) way to respond to this, as opposed to the socialist whining that suggests SJ and Apple has “moral” obligations to make sure customers are PROTECTED from their OWN stupidity – MAKE SOME MONEY out of the situation, and stop whining. And don’t tell me it isn’t about MONEY, because that is ALL it is, that is all you are whining about, and that is the ONLY difference between what you bought and the “new iPhone” – THE PRICE!
My 12 cents (I’m sick of the whining about discounting – you bastards can pay full price!)
Luke
@ LukeinOz
Great post. I agree with you completely.
To all those who feel cheated by the price cut I would like to remind them that they signed up for two years. So their loss is $200 over two years. That works out at 27 cents a day.
Stop moaning and enjoy your purchase. In my opinion Apple had very good cause to drop the price. Especially when compared to the prices for the iPod touch. They could not do it any other way.
Stop bitching you Americans. The people really being ripped off, as usual, are Europeans (well actually everyone outside the USA). Why? Well because the iPod touch costs in the USD 399. In Europe it costs USD 543, a USD 144 difference!
Go an look at the Apple European website, the iPod touch costs EUR 399… only problem is the exchange rate is 1 Euro = 1.36146 US Dollar.
So quit your whining – the rest of the world is subsidising your price cuts.
If you didn’t think the iPhone was worth $599 you SHOULDN’T HAVE BOUGHT ONE. You bozos KNEW the device would sell for less in the future. Crybabies.
One million sold is a lot, but a pittance in Apple’s overall plan. Hmmm… attract 30million more users by lowering the price, or risk alienating a “handful” of early adopters that seem to be willing to shell out bucks no matter what?
Not a tough decision.
Being overcharged by Apple is part of what makes me so special for owning Apple products.
I’m happy that they have my $200 because it shows how clever I am for buying Apple products.
Makes no diff to me – even though I spent the money on the smaller phone 4gB and could have had a larger one. It works, I get a great deal of pleasure out of ease of use. Beats the crap out of the old Verizon Motorola I had. No big deal. This stuff happens all the time, with Apple and other companies. The money’s been spent and I ain’t gonna cry about it.
“or risk alienating a “handful” of early adopters”
Steve is the maestro. He played the faithful Apple user base like a fiddle. He got $200 extra from each of them before dropping the price for the general public.
I bought my iPhone on day one. I do think the new price is a better price point and Apple should do well selling iPhones. My APPL stock will rise. All good.
I think Apple should somehow distinguish or reward early adopters. An iTunes credit would be nice. A promised discount on the new 3G iPhone would be better.
Well, I feel slightly pissed about the price of the phone dropping — my smug is more expensive than $200 – and I was hoping to enjoy it for a while longer! However, for Apple, this is a great move. Strategically it is a real attack on the rest of the Smartphone category, that will put price pressure on all of the other manufacturers. It also shows that Steve Jobs learned a lesson from his early days in the pc business – when he kept prices high – and lost huge nascent market share to IBM and the clone manufacturers. No similar mistake this time – and I assume Apple will OWN this market segment by the end of 2008. Now that will be sweet.
As a quid pro quo for early adopters, it would be nice if Apple would start releasing the promised firmware upgrades to fix some of the functionality problems in the iPhone as it now stands. For example, limited bluetooth functionality, the ability to mass-delete emails, more shortcuts to navigate the iPhone (back to the home screen to do everything?), and a host of other items identified by the “iPhone press”.
LukeInOz: Right on!
I bought my iPhone at about 6:10p on 6/29/2007. I have definitely got my $200 worth out of the phone over the last 68 days!
While I am shocked Apple dropped the price as quickly and as much as they did–I was expecting a $100 decrease, and posssibly a memory boost, at Macworld in January–I am by no means mad at Apple.
It’s great for everyone else, but it stinks for the early adopters. I knew it would go down (thought it would be with an upgrade early next year), but not that quickly and not that much. I didn’t want to wait until next year to buy it and that was my choice buy right away or wait until the next one. I saved for it (in fact took some money that I was going to use for a new Mac) and calculated the cost that having one phone would save me. I could have waited two months and still saved that money.
Here’s what really kills – the resale value just hit bottom (except for foreign), so when I want to upgrade, I won’t be able to sell my old one to fund part of it. So I won’t be able to upgrade until it bites the dust.
BTW, the key to this is that Apple had to know they were going to do this, and that’s not the right way to treat their local customers.
BTW, I am not rich, a fanatic or anything like that. I like Macs and I love my iPhone, but 200 is a lot of money to me and I would have waited.
people were already making fun of me before this for buying it “You are such a gadget girl” and now they are going to have a field day – so that’s going to be very annoying. and all I can do is smile and nod.
Ahh quit yer bitching!!!
$200 ain’t squat compared to the early adopters of the single processor 1.8 Ghz G5 PowerMac’s.
Apple discontinued them shortly, like a few weeks, in favor of a dual processor 1.8 Ghz G5 for a mere $500 more.
So for $500 more one could have had DOUBLE the computing power and more than three times the longivity of a single processor machine.
Nobody wants single processor machines now but dual processors still have plenty of value.
In fact dual processor machines have more value than dual core machines because each processor has it’s own Bus and memory controller, unlike the dual core machines which share a slower common bus per processor.
This means for multi-tasking, the higher I/O is better. Faster to video cards, RAM and hard drives. Each processor can run at max and send/recieve data at maximum speed.
These new Intel processors, although multi-core, hobble the bus. So they are good at intensive CPU functions that the big job can be split amongst the cores. But suck ass big time if you want to run a lot of different apps at once and anything that depends upon getting data in and out fast of the processors.
I would rather have 8 seperate one core processors, with fast bus and RAID 0 boot drive in one box, than a two quad-core box with hobbled shared bus.
With computers it’s like chains, they are only as powerful as their weakest link.
The whole computer needs to be fast, not just the processors.
Well I could say that I was pissed when I first heard the news of such a dramatic price drop. But when I think back to the news of what Steve and Apple hoped to achieve with the iPhones release. I can only say that I subconsciously expected the price to drop quickly. To be honest in the end it’s not about the consumer, it’s inevitably about the sale.
Ok, so F me apple, come on! Do it, F me… No! I don’t want an iPhone SDK, No, I don’t want copy/paste, For sure I want to be locked to a single carrier – YES, F ME!!! Price gouge me !! YES!!!
Screwed by Apple. I have spent more money on Apple hardware than most. But that’s not the point. What about those who had to save up hard earned dollars and plopped down $600 at launch?
This was one of the biggest blunders Apple has ever made. To be honest I rarely complain about Apple directly. Now I am furious and will demand some type of refund from them, regardless of when I bought it. You should as well.
This kind of reminds me of when I spent $400 on a 5 GB iPod. Many people thought I was crazy to spend that much on a relatively new product (it was like 2nd generation or something) but it was worth it to me at the time, and I don’t regret buying it.
Although I understand the angst, I think you early adopters have to take a step back and realize that you are not entitled to retroactive price cuts, iTunes gift cards, or anything of the like. You made a buying decision at the time that seemed worth it to you and you should be happy with your decision.
Once again supply and demand bits us in the a@@! The sorry thing is that Apple knew that all us suckers would pay just about anything to have a peice of technology like the iphone. We all seen this coming sometime before Christmas. Apple just has market analyst smart enought to determine the best time for things like this! Do I feel ripped off? Ya a little, but it is my fault I fell into the demand trap. Should have know better, but the iphone is great!
I love Apple products. I have more iPods than you can shake a stick at. I have an Intel Mini that I love. I work with Mac’s. I expected to have some scars by being an early iPhone adopter. Maybe the phone’s features would suffer “growing pains” as Apple worked the kinks out. Maybe Apple would introduce new Iphones **9 MONTHS** or maybe a **YEAR** after I buy. But, I never figured Apple would toast me by dropping the price 33% this quickly. My mind kept telling me to wait. But, I bought anyway. (I bought on 7/7). Lesson learned.
Everyone expects the price of electronic goods to decrease with time, but this is too much too quick. It is not a technology issue. It is not a lower-cost-of-production issue. This is a customer rip-off issue.
With one sentence, Steve Jobs alienated his fanboys, pissed off one million customers, and lost a good chunk of the customer goodwill that is his company’s stock-in-trade. When the early adopters bought the iPhone, Apple had no reputation for volatile pricing. Now that has changed. If you buy a newly introduced Apple product now, you are taking a known risk. I think it is best to wait for the certified refurbished ones.
I am filing a complaint against my local Apple store through the county consumer affairs office. The county follows up quickly, so the Apple store manager should be contrite by Tuesday.
Just thinking of what I could have done with that extra 200 bucks… Early adopters got the privilege of paying $600 to be Apple’s street marketing team demoing the phone to non-believers. Now 68 days after all our effort this price drop is like a slap in the face…. Apple, throw us a freakin bone or something!
Early adopters must pay through the nose…this did not change when Apple released this phone. Apple did not set this precedent and lets hope they did not exploit it (at least we should hope). I mean this technology could have cost a $1,000 and people would have bought it. 20 years ago this thing would have cost $5,000 and been a rotary dialer! My mothers first cell phone cost over a grand and only had buttons on the face, cost like $4.00 a minute to make a phone call IF you could get a signal……early adopters should be frustrated but only that their patience didn’t afford them the ability to remain in a holding pattern to see where the market moved. This is not new to business, Apple, or any other electronics manufacturer……the bottom line is “Does this technology warrant the inital price tag?” My answer would be yes at seeing the numbers of these flying off the shelves alone, couple that with the features and I say they should have raised the price $200, not lowered it…..I mean come on…. people were limited to buying two of them at $599 and people were pissed at being limited to 2…..$599 didn’t seem like too much then….but the ultimate bottom line is Supply and Demand is a hell of a thing!
While I, too, felt the sting of the sudden drop in the price of the iPhone, and for the record, would also love to have something (perhaps store credit) in exchange for the ‘early-adopters’ premium that we paid, this issue pales in comparison to the value drop experienced withing minutes of driving a new car off a dealer’s lot.
As a business decision, the time between the introduction of the iPhone @ USD599 and the price drop may have helped Apple recoup some of its R&D;costs, and now positions the iPhone in the market so that the competition won’t have the ability to recoup their R&D;costs for their ‘iPhone-killer’ because the price floor is now lower.
Also, as others have mentioned, I suspect there is a new iPhone model waiting in the wings (perhaps two) – it will be the new $599 darling (with GPS, 16GB, 3G, etc, etc.).
Just my $200.00
Magic Word: over-‘charge’ how true.
09/05/07 — This will be the day I fell out of blind love for Apple.
I’ve was an Apple employee for three years, ‘Mac Genius’ — and was one of Apple’s most vocal switchers…
Today that “Fanboy” feeling I had for Apple is gone. I can’t explain it, I just feel like a girlfriend I’ve had for 10 years has cheated on me.
$200 might not be alot to some of you… but to me, $200 is a whole like of pain from the ol’ Hammer’s wife.
Seriously though, I don’t think it’s 100% about the money… it’s about having faith in a product. Sure, the phone works just as good as it did yesterday… but I bought it thinking I was paying a little more for something that was so advanced it had to justify it’s rather high price tag — I guess I was wrong.
I’ll still use it, and other Apple products… I just won’t get that twinge of excitement the night before a keynote, or pour over every little thing Apple does… and that is a shame.
Apple is just another company… 🙁
The word ‘withing’ should read ‘within’
Wine, Wine, Wine you early adopters…
I think this guy nailed the whole story in his blog…
a href=”http://thelordshome.com/blog/?p=77″>Apple fan-boys… biggest fans and biggest whiners</a>
Wine, Wine, Wine you early adopters…
I think this guy nailed the whole story in his blog…
Apple fan-boys… biggest fans and biggest whiners
Well, I guess I would still pay the price for the phone and consider it worth it. I too have the 8GB, and am seriously pissed that th price drop happened so quickly. I think Apple should give early adopters, say the first 60 days, a $100 credit on iTunes for use in their new store to be available on the iPhone, and they know who these users are since everything had to be registered through iTunes, they can figure this stuff out. Common’ Apple, we early adopters gave you soooo much free marketing and demo-ing to people… we have provided you with an installed base of word of mouth marketing… and we get to pay $200 for that?! Kiss my oranges… I’m not buying anything early again.
“Wine, Wine, Wine you early adopters…”
Wine?
Cheese?
How about whine. Pre-schooler.
Fog City Dave said: “What a bunch of babies. The iPhone was worth every penny I spent for it when I gladly threw down $599 for it in early July. I didn’t regret it for a second back then, so why should I feel hosed now? I’m surprised Apple dropped the price so dramatically so quickly, but to me, it just shows that their going after their competitors with extreme prejudice and bloodthirst.”
My thoughts exactly.
As for you people suggesting class action law suits: Did you get what you paid for? Yes? Then STFU.
Okay, you nonwhiners, now that Apple has a new volatile pricing policy in place, what sort of purchase are you contemplating? How about a new Mac Pro with a price collapse on the 15th day after you purchase it?
To put this in perspective for the nonwhiners: It would take Steve Jobs 200 years to earn enough salary to refund the money lost by just one customer who trusted him when he said that the product was worth the price.
Two hundred years.
That’s a big rip-off.
Honestly, I am not sure what to think.
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The price drop didn’t piss me off, so much as the iPod Touch. That annoys the hell out of me.
That being said, I would still get my iPhone in a heartbeat. I have been looking for a device like this for years (I had a sprint phone plug-in card in my handspring visor 5 years ago, but it never was the device I thought it could be)… Anyone who bought one more than two weeks and less than 6 weeks ago I think should be pissed off. They are the ones who are paying the most for it.
I agree, I do feel like a bit of a beta tester… However, at the same time, Jobs is right, it <u>is</u> the nature of technology, it just doesn’t usually do this quite so quickly….
Ultimately, I am ambivalent.
The article examines the cost in one way:
For the phone only during the contract period:
$2.94 a day for the first 68 days
$0.60 a day for the last 662 days
For the cheapest plan ($59.99), per day:
$1.99 a day for the first 68 days
$1.99 a day for the flast 662 days
In total:
$4.93 a day for the first 68 days
$2.59 a day for the last 662 days
52% drop in per day price
Or, if you look at it in terms of the whole contract:
orignal price total: $599 + 24* $59.99 = $2038.76
price if bought now: $399 + 24* 59.99 = $1838.76
The price of owning and using an iPhone only dropped by less than 10%. That is not bad for being an early adopter. Some people tried to make the phone look expensive by looking at the cost over the entire contract, but now they are back to making it look expensive by looking at it on a per day basis.
Not to mention the refurbished ones that had already taken $100 off the original price.
This is for all of you dickheads that are telling us we are “whiners”. No one, absolutely no one, has ever dropped a price of an item of this magnitude, with this much hype, by 33% in such a short period.
So this tells us one of two things. First, Apple could have dropped the price because they knew they were not selling up to expectations. A $100 price drop would have been sufficient to make a difference here because the truth is the iPhone is indeed selling well. The latest reports put it as the best selling smartphone since it’s introduction.
Second (the more likely scenario), Apple knew there would be early adopters that would pay anything, so they set the price high to recover some of their R&D;and marketing costs from us fools who were the “beta testers”. Fact is WE did marketing for Apple. I must have sold 20+ fucking iPhones for Apple just showing off the thing. I became a chick magnet just by using the device. So maybe Apple owes me something (yeah right, like that’s going to happen). So think about that – we not only beta tested and adopted early, we were unpaid Apple marketing reps.
So put that into perspective. We pay $599 two months ago, go out and sell phones for Apple just by using the thing in public, and they cut the price by $200, thereby screwing all of us who bought first. Sorry guys, that’s bullshit. I have to wonder what they were thinking when they made this decision. They sure weren’t thinking about us loyalists. Maybe they should keep in mind that we may not be so loyal in the future.
Look, I love my iPhone, and I suppose that’s all that should count. It’s the greatest piece of technology out there, bar none. But that is not the point. The point is about loyalty to those who support Apple in the manner we have in the past, and how we are treated. So for the asshole who said STFU, think about that, asswipe.
Now we see the real Apple fans…
I got an iPhone a week after it came out. All that matters is I’ve had it and used it and had so much fun with it.
It’s what being an Apple fan is all about. Nothing beats this one: PowerMac G4 Sawtooth = “…the first time in personal computer history that any model saw a downgrade in performance without any reduction in price.” Now that was a Classic! You go through that, you can go through anything!
Apple Forever!
When I bought my SonyEricsson S710 for $399. Less than 4 months later I could have gotten it for $239. Had I waited I would have gotten it at 40% off. It’s normal for cell phones to drop fast in pricing, Apple did nothing that all other cell phone manufacturers do, and some do price drops that are more drastic then 33%. I’m happy with my iPhone, I got the 4Gig because I don’t need to lug around my entire music collection. People tend to forget that Apple is a business, they like the loyal users and they know that with out us they would be hurting, but we shouldn’t expect to given special privileges just because we were first on the block with a new toy.
Ken Jordan –
“I want my 200 back!!! We got ripped!”
If you paid $600 and it wasn’t worth $600, then you made a poor purchase decision. Your fault, not Steve’s.
My iPhone was well worth $600. No regrets. And, when I’m ready to ditch my iPhone for a better model, it’ll be that much cheaper.
how do I feel about it? well, I love my iphone. but this is truly a stupid, base-alienating move.
my reply? well, I plan on NOT buying Leopard now at a store, and instead I’ll find it on BitTorrent.
“That’s what happens!”
I must say that as an early adopter of everything Apple has put out over the last 15 years, I’m very very upset with the $200.00 price cut of the 8G iPhone. Apple and in particular Steve Jobs has made a grave mistake. I can almost promise you all that the next Apple product to be launched will not have throngs of loyal apple early adopters waiting in line for days to shell out for a product that will almost surely drop in price by nearly 50% after 90 days. Apple by pissing off its early adopters, will loose valuable marketeers (the early adopters) for their new products, so you can be sure Apple product launches will not get the hype that they use to. By ripping off its most loyal customers Apple has now joined the likes of MS. I will never again wait in line for an Apple product at launch, rather I plan on waiting at least 4 months (and a significant price drop from Apple) before I even enter an Apple store to buy the new product. Good luck Apple!
I’d be a lot LESS pissed off if he had offered early adopters a $100 credit for iTunes (music only)
The impact of this decision is going to be that future Apple products first weekend and first two months sales figures are going to be a lot weaker than they have been historically.
Only Apple can figure out the future costs, but I’m guessing that it’ll quickly add up to a lot more than a $200 rebate.
Does anyone expect the huge free media bonanza that the iPhone got with week early lines to ever occur against the new backdrop of the “just wait two months and buy it at 2/3rd the price” mentality of Apple’s most loyal customers?
What about the shareholders who expect large initial sales, and will be disappointed that only journalists are buying new products for the first 50% of the quarter? No one will appreciate the share price tanking for two months every single major product launch.
Should we be canceling our pre-orders of Leopard, and wait two months to see if the price drops by a third at Christmas?
But giving money back is bad… $200 of Apple product is a lot cheaper than $200 cash.
Why not give everyone an $200 credit towards an Apple TV instead, and breath fresh life into that little “hobby” item?
I bought an 8GB on night one, and the price cut didn’t upset me as I’m used to it as an early tech adopter. I just ordered 2 4GB models for my wife and son so my average price per phone is now $400.
captain crunch –
“I plan on NOT buying Leopard now at a store, and instead I’ll find it on BitTorrent.”
Ah, so, once again, you’re going to pay exactly what it’s worth to you. But, if Leopard is worth nothing to you, why download it?
Freeloader.
Ther is a lot at stake for Apple with this price cut but I think it was the right thing to do .With media convergence and a significantly increasing operating system market share Apple needs to price its items competatively Nokia just announced a music service and has shown it’s own IPhone-let the battle begin
To those who were early adopters I think it would be nice if Apple gave them some sort of future credit but I live in Canada where the IPhone is not available and I am much more concerned about outrageous data plan costs we have here .I did however buy an IPhone for my son who is a student in US-great device and I don’t regret the price.I also think that ge 2 IPhone will be on market within few monthswith more features and bigger price
I feel taken advantage of. Bilking your most loyal customers is not good business. The next new product Apple releasese (iPod Touch, hello?) I doubt will see dramatic initial sales for this very reason.
I’m used to the perils of early adopting, but a 2 month cycle w/o an improvement in technology is a bit much to swallow. There is no new replacement better product, just a price cut on the existing one. Technology has NOT lept forward with this move; instead the gamma-testers have paid a premium for the prviledge.
If they knew this price cut was coming they should have done it from the start.
Apple hasn’t lost this customer over this, but I will watch them with a far more wary eye now.
Disclosure: I am an apple investor
Here’s a couple of sayings for those feeling the sting:
1. A fool and his money are soon parted.
2. Buyer beware.
By standing in that line on Day One, you were telling the world you were a risk-taker. A gambler. (An idiot, some would say.) At the very least, you were telling them all you didn’t care what they thought. Still, your purchase was a gamble.
You knew there was a chance that the phone might suck, late reports aside–way too many variables, starting with AT&T;(never mind the myriad hardware/software glitch possibilities). You also knew Apple might quickly follow by introducing something new, like maybe a 16GB version, within a couple of months. (And Apple’s history would have allows us to predict such a unit would occupy the top slot, at $599.) You knew they might easily reduce the price going into Christmas. Yet with all these possibilities floating in your Early Adopter brain, you stood in that line and paid for your piece of Apple shizz.
Well… in many ways, your gamble paid off: you got a great phone–not just great, but miles groovier than anything else out there. You got the sudden admiration of all your friends and coworkers. You enjoyed that adulation, and the killer gadget, for more than two months. You were poppin’ fer sher.
Then yesterday, you were told the cost of your nine-week E-ticket ride.
Twenty sawbucks may have been worth it for some; not for others. Regardless, I daresay that some of those complaining now, if given the choice, would have forked over the $200 on Day One if that had been separately charged as the “fee” for being guaranteed a phone.
A friend of mine ran around and bought FOUR iPhones on the day of release. So yesterday he’s pissed, says that, for him, Apple has lost a lot of it’s luster. Me, I’m thinking “Hey, you could have waited a few months. Wouldn’t have hurt–but no, you jumped in your car, raced down there, stood in that line, and took a chance.”
Nobody held a gun to your head. Nobody said the price wouldn’t come down, or that the phone wouldn’t flop, or fail, leaving you and all those like you looking real stupid indeed. So I think the gamble turned out pretty well for you. You paid two hundred bucks to be the coolest… for two months. A hundred bucks a month, more or less. Your phone worked, was indeed cool, and all your friends loved you.
Those of us who waited a while learned the amount of our reward. But we paid a cost too–we didn’t get to enjoy an iPhone two months before everyone else.
So back to our little proverbs. If you knew and accepted the risks, casting your money on a spin of the wheel, well, you did great. If you were thinking there WERE no risks, that’s a different story. Like somebody said earlier… you’ve got bigger problems than losing $200.
I’m in the “get over it” camp.
These things happen all the time, why bash Apple?
Another example. In Jan 2006, DirecTV comes out with their HD Tivo. Early adopter price $999. One year later, COSTCO had them for $399. Was that $600 (60%) price drop hard to swallow? Yes. Was it worth having the HD TIVO for that year? Of course.
We early adopters have a sickness that we must feed by buying new products at premium prices. Whether the price drop happens in 2 months, 6 months or a year – it doesn’t matter. We buy it at the price it’s at if it’s worth it, we enjoy it, we move on.
I understand the newspaper delivery kid from the movie “Better Off Dead” was on Steve Job’s doorstep this morning.
“I want my 200 dollars”.
While some say it was a great business move for Apple to lower the iPhone price $200, it was at the expense of the faithful Apple customers.
It’s just not the right thing to do. I’m reasonable and fair. This move was neither.
It had a Microsoft stenchy smell to it.
Do the right thing, Apple, and make it right with those faithful initial buyers that completed the success of your iPhone. Apple could not have had a success without making a great product, as well, it also couldn’t have had a success without faithful customers supporting that product. It goes both ways.
A $200 Apple store certificate would be a fair and reasonable satisfaction.
I love my Apple products, however, it’s never nice getting a one-two sucker punch from anybody.
Anyone that doesn’t realize that whatever electronic/computer purchase they make will be lower soon afterwards is living under a rock. Or when a hot new car comes out and they charge over sticker price. It boils down to whether you want to be first on the block and have bragging rights or if you don’t mind waiting and not be first. Almost all electronic/computer products follow that cycle. Wait a while to buy and you get the same thing cheaper or better. And you aren’t a potential guinea pig for any bugs it might have. I think most of the early adaptors got their $200 worth of “look at me and my cool phone”. So stop the whining.
Dear Steve,
Can you see me know? I am quite shocked at your obvious disregard and lack of respect for my decision to purchase your unproven apple product, the iPhone. I purchased the 4GB iPhone (at substantial cost to me) in late July 2007 after having been a long time, mostly satisfied RIM Blackberry, Windows PPC, Windows PPC SE, Windows PPC 2003, Windows 5.0 MDA user. Even with the knowledge that a real solution for corporate Exchange email, a keyboard or 3rd party application support wasn’t in the works, I took the risk based on Apple’s reputation and forked over $499 + $100 in accessories at an Apple store in SOHO to become your customer.
Following the recent news of a $200 price reduction and elimination from the line up of the 4GB model, I was dumbfounded! Some produce in the supermarket has a longer shelf life than the 4GB iPhone.
Your reputation is by all accounts suffering greatly! I as well will not purchase an Apple product ever again! No iMac, no iPod, no iTouch, no iTV, nothing! More, I am selling my iPhone on eBay and terminating my AT&T;agreement immediately. I look forward to bringing my business back to T-mobile and HTC’s Windows Mobile 6.0 where such price gouging is less obnoxious.
If you show any interest in me, I would like to hear back from you on two items:
1) What is your thinking behind such an increase knowing this would infuriate your loyal early adopters?
2) What will do to keep me as your customer (both AT&T;& Apple)?
Sincerely,
nearly former iPhone owner & AT&T;subscriber
i suggested a 100 dollar rebate for early adopters. Apparently we just got it!!!
I didn’t buy an iPhone yet, so I guess it’s easy for me to say “hindsight is 20/20” but on a basic level I think that’s true. From a personal perspective, this is like the rest of life: you have to make your decisions based on the available information at the time, and take what comes in the future.
However, if we consider this from Apple’s business perspective, what sets Apple apart from its competitors, I think one of their strong points is low buyer’s remorse. Part of this is a slim product line with limited and clearly-differentiated choice (there was a recent psychology article on this), but I think another part of it is a high degree of stability in their product lineups, which they’ve thrown doubt on by this extreme re-positioning.
Some kind of goodwill gesture might be smart business, even though I hardly think they are obligated. My suggestion would be to give early iPhone adopters a free copy of Leopard when it comes out. It costs next to nothing to press a DVD. Of course, if they are Windows users….
I see the news has not hit here yet. All the mega moaners and complainers. OK, its a sting. But many of you have the 14 day window to take stuff back / get the price changed. And others have longer with the credit card price protection.
So, most of you can quit complaining. Was it worth it at the 600 dollar price? OF COURSE it was. you paid it?? right???
Now everyone ( EVERYONE ) gets at least $ 100 dollars back. Most other companies would just turn a cold shoulder, but Apple is giving a MINIMUM of $100 back in store credit.
All bow towards CA. Steve is king. Long live Steve. LOL
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i don’t mind the 2.94 or whatever it is for a day of having the best phone ever. but the 5.26 that it cost me was a bit too much. i went to the store last night, kindly asked for some kind of rebate, and the full $200 was returned to me, including tax. i walked out of the store about $216 richer. thanks, steve!
I used to work for Apple a while back and it was a great experience. What finally drove me away though were the customers: the fanboys and fanatics that combined stupidity with smugness.
I remember when the Titanium powerbook first came out; it was the first widescreen laptop if I recall that was only an inch thin. It was also very light considering its feature set. Well, a long time fan came in and started to bitch how it was far too heavy and far too thick. I asked if he could name a single comparitive machine with lighter and thinner specs. He spluttered that IT didn’t matter if no such thing existed, it was still an OUTRAGE that Apple would “dare” call 1 inch “thin” and the sub 6 lb weight “light”.
On other occassions I remember countless Apple fans complaining that the 40 GB Ipod had paltry storage, that the Nano was too big, and that iTunes was too difficult to use.
The fact is this: Apple customers cannot be made happy. You get mad if the price goes up, goes down, or stays the same. Updates happen too quickly, too slowly, or don’t adress enough. There’s too much choice, too little choice – their marketing is too passive, too aggressive etc etc.
The only thing Apple Fans are truly addicted to has absolutely nothing to with Apple’s hardware or software… Apple Fans are addicted to bitching.
There is something called free will. Ultimately, you have the choice to buy or not – – Apple does not force you to buy.
Second, Apple is not in the business of screwing you.You may perceive things as such, but the technology biz is, in fact, complex and dynamic. There are more important tasks out there than trying to figure out how to make you pissed off and miserable.
The reality of the price drop is this: Apple is realizing cost savings due to economies of scale due to several things: the iPhone is selling far above internal expectations and many of the components are also in the new touch ipod – therefore Apple’s leverage on component pricing has increased significantly. In addition, Apple is now fully realizing cost savings from its mammoth buys of flash memory that it undertook several years ago…
Finally, Apple is actually indicating the level of committment they have to the iPhone. By lowering the price now, they are signaling they have very much intend to make the iPhone a player on the mobile phone space even if it means sacrificing a few margin percentage points. This, in the end, is a GOOD thing for all iPhone users.
But, please continue to bitch – maybe in the future Apple will mollify you and NOT drop the price!
BTW – Apple is going to give $100 credit for all the poor iPhone buyers out there – so who’s gonna be the first to bitch about that?
Seems like Apple has done the right thing and given something back… this $100 coupon. I’m happy with it and still very very happy with my Apple iPhone. Cheers.
“Seems like Apple has done the right thing and given something back… this $100 coupon.”
Sure, after giving it to you up the arse, they’re giving you a coupon to go get more Apple stuff. What do you know of in an Apple store that will cost you exactly $100?
In any case, Steve has your dollars. Just admit that you’ve been played.
Not too bright on Apple’s part. They have just reamed the enthusiasts and have taught everyone a lesson – don’t buy on the launch date.
We now know that if we wait, then we can buy at a discount with the majority of the bugs fixed (3 software updates since they released it?).
Can’t wait to see the slow sales of the next wiz bang gizmo from Apple.
This is the first Apple product I’ve bought 16 days prior to the price drop. Yes, everyone expects technology to go down, but economies of scale does not buy you a 33% cut in cost in the first quarter. This is a calculated move to sacrifice a more than ample gross margin in order to get more users. It will probably work.
Well I called Apple today and asked if I could get the difference; they told me no since I was 2 days past the 14 day period. I can certainly afford the $200, but I do feel screwed. As a consolation I “may” be eligible for a gift card to an Apple store. Won’t matter as this is the first and last piece of Apple branded hardware I buy.
Now that this has settled with the (unnecessary) $100 gift from Apple, I only have one hope of what may come out of this …
My hope is that all the people who feel ripped off after making a decision that the phone was worth the price they paid (and thye were greatly pleased with its performance) … I hope these people live up to their word and never buy another Apple product again. Hopeffully those of us who are glad there are nice products as alternatives to the frustrating CRAP we have experienced from companies like Microsoft, RIM, Motorola, Verizon, etc will NEVER have to listen to their bitching again. Since I don’t read forums from those other companies, I won’t have to be exposed to their whining again.
To all of them – hope you enjoy the alternative products !!!!
People!!
Please stop whining… You knew the price.. you still bought it… and you still love it! I did the same.
Pretty soon all the same people who buy the “new” less expensive iPhone 8Gb will be whining again when the 16Gb version is released! (see iTouch.. hmm….)
Perhaps this was a little more drastic than most cuts.. but it is tech and pretty soon yesterday’s “Apple” is the stale fruit decaying in the back of the truck.
So cut / slash and sell is the motto.
My question is when is the 2nd (3G?) Gen iPhone coming?
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And YES… I will be waiting in line (thank goodness for ebay!)
I feel just fine – best phone I’ve ever had. Very happy with it. Would have paid 100 more – would have paid 200 less, it didn’t matter to me one bit. Just as with my mac, the lack of pain that I experience cannot be valued highly enough. My Treo and Mot Q caused me so much pain that a few hundred dollars is worth the pain relief.
Jobs should have offered a 16GB iPhone at $599… if he had there would be a lot less agnst over the drop to $399, and many of the early adopters would have gladly updated… and who wins. Steve!!
They wouldn’t even have to make that many available… they could even up the price a bit..
There is a funny video bit about the 1,000,000th iPhone sale on the front page of Webcastr today. (They tend to cover Apple stuff pretty well.) Here’s a link: [url=http://www.webcastr.com]http://www.webcastr.com[/url]
I’m fine with it. Didn’t expect the gift card, so that was a bonus.
MW: Cannot
As in I cannot complain.
Just be thankful that the Iphone isn’t 6 inches longer and shaped like a cylinder! haha I can’t help but laugh at the “whiny early adopters”, haha. Its not that bad guys! Seriously my point is that at least you guys have an amazing phone that makes you happy. If the phone sucked (now that would be a truly desirable feature, hehe) then your moans would be understandable. Puns away! hehe
I am just glad it’s cheaper now because when I buy the next version the price will be lower than 599.
Yes, I will be upgrading the day it is available.