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.