Apple CEO Steve Jobs has posted an open letter to all iPhone customers on Apple’s website. Here it is verbatim:
To all iPhone customers:
I have received hundreds of emails from iPhone customers who are upset about Apple dropping the price of iPhone by $200 two months after it went on sale. After reading every one of these emails, I have some observations and conclusions.
First, I am sure that we are making the correct decision to lower the price of the 8GB iPhone from $599 to $399, and that now is the right time to do it. iPhone is a breakthrough product, and we have the chance to ‘go for it’ this holiday season. iPhone is so far ahead of the competition, and now it will be affordable by even more customers. It benefits both Apple and every iPhone user to get as many new customers as possible in the iPhone ‘tent’. We strongly believe the $399 price will help us do just that this holiday season.
Second, being in technology for 30+ years I can attest to the fact that the technology road is bumpy. There is always change and improvement, and there is always someone who bought a product before a particular cutoff date and misses the new price or the new operating system or the new whatever. This is life in the technology lane. If you always wait for the next price cut or to buy the new improved model, you’ll never buy any technology product because there is always something better and less expensive on the horizon. The good news is that if you buy products from companies that support them well, like Apple tries to do, you will receive years of useful and satisfying service from them even as newer models are introduced.
Third, even though we are making the right decision to lower the price of iPhone, and even though the technology road is bumpy, we need to do a better job taking care of our early iPhone customers as we aggressively go after new ones with a lower price. Our early customers trusted us, and we must live up to that trust with our actions in moments like these.
Therefore, we have decided to offer every iPhone customer who purchased an iPhone from either Apple or AT&T, and who is not receiving a rebate or any other consideration, a $100 store credit towards the purchase of any product at an Apple Retail Store or the Apple Online Store. Details are still being worked out and will be posted on Apple’s website next week. Stay tuned.
We want to do the right thing for our valued iPhone customers. We apologize for disappointing some of you, and we are doing our best to live up to your high expectations of Apple.
Steve Jobs
Apple CEO
Source: http://www.apple.com/hotnews/openiphoneletter/
Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. – Steve Jobs, June 12, 2005
Above and beyond the call of duty? The squeaky wheel gets the grease? Insanely great or greatly insane? Too little, too late? The foundation of justice is good faith? I love it when a plan comes together? Do what you feel in your heart to be right, for you’ll be criticized anyway; you’ll be damned if you do and damned if you don’t? The customer is always right? It was preordained? Played like a fiddle? That you may retain your self-respect, it is better to displease the people by doing what you know is right, than to temporarily please them by doing what you know is wrong? Keep true, never be ashamed of doing right; decide on what you think is right and stick to it? The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing; if you can fake that, you’ve got it made? If life were fair, Elvis would be alive and all the impersonators would be dead?
Hey, we’ve got hundreds of ’em. What’s your take?
Wise decision
That is why I have bought over 50 Macs!
Wow. Moses has come down from the mountain with the tablet.
90 million buck decision. Smart. I bought my iPhone 12 days ago, so I get 200 back. Jobs be da man. Naysayers, eat me.
*Cry* Thanks Steve. You make me love you even more. I love my iPhone!
What? No one has complained that it’s not $200…
I would want one for 599 NOW!!! (I live in Belgium)
w00t!!
Of course El Jobso isn’t going to return the full $200, but this is the right thing for him to do.
Hopefully this will stop the whining…
Steve’s right. There is always something better on the horizon. I was one of the first to buy a 15″ macbook pro. Now they are faster, larger, and much more reasonably priced. That’s just the way the “technology cookie” crumbles.
This is a very gracious gesture on Apple’s part. Don’t expect the same from other companies.
for someone who has already gotten over the 200 dollars price cut, this is like free money.
good Idea I did not expect this. Im an apple nut , stock holder and I also Own a retail Business This $100 Store Credit Will get $ 200 in Puchsese. Another good Idea
Not a 90M decision exactly — it is store credit, and so given apple’s margins, it’s more like at most a 45M decision assuming 900K units sold.
Two good moves…
Lowering the price just before the holiday buying season and making early adopters feel better.
I’ve had my iPhone since day one and although the price drop stung a bit, I was not all that upset… this sort of thing happens all the time with new technology (CD burners, DVD burners, Blu-Ray, Razr, etc). There’s often a hefty price to pay for any early adoption of something totally new, but the early months of smug and usefulness is a lot of fun.
Apple/Steve are making a good call on this one.
now manybe the crybabies will STFU.
yes i have an iPhone. Yes i dont care they dropped the price.
Still disappointed. I suspect this decision was considered long before the iPhone was launched on June 29th. Steve is a savy and brilliant Man. That said, we early adopters should receive the $200 break. After all, it is us loyal customers that made iPhone a success, Without the strength of the Apple consumer community there would be no Apple. I fear that as Apple continues to grow that it will be very easy to forget the customers (fans) that stood by Apple during the not so profitable years.
Apple needs to remain loyal to those that support Apple.
Makes perfect sense. Those in the normal 14-day window for price matching get the full $200. Those who have had the benefit of using the product for a while get a prorated $100 store credit.
And the really savvy people with credit cards that do price guarantees may just get their cake ($200 refund) and eat it too ($100 credit).
Kudo’s to Apple and Steve. This is the best way to unpiss-off many iPhone owners. I didn’t want or expect $200 back. But something is what was needed, and I am glad that it is going to be what it is.
This simple act will help everyone in the public trust the company and know that the company cares about their customers after the purchase. Great job and great choice. Thanks Steve and everyone at Apple.
cue bitching about it being “only” $100.
MW: would—Would you shut up about it already?
I wouldn’t have given you shit.
Nice – appreciated – not necessary – but I’ll take it. They did the same thing with Aperture. Very classy. Been a Mac-Apple buyer since the Apple II. Lived through the bad years without Steve and am enjoying the years WITH Steve immensely. This is just ONE reason why I appreciate Apple and the Mac. Yeah, yeah – I’m a fanboy and drank the Kool-Aid. So what!
Steve,
This is absolutely the correct thing to do. Most people that bought the phones aren’t bitching about the money per se but about the drastic price cut so soon after the release. It just hurts a bit. We could’ve initially used that $200 elsewhere in the store and now we can! It still helps you guys out and it makes me love Apple even more than I did before!
bought two refurb 4G iphones last week for $399 each. just got off the phone with apple: they’re giving me a $150 refund on each of ’em. sweet.
Now, all you crybabies, shaddup!
Thanks, Steve…enough said.
Control, meet Damage.
Damage, meet Control.
Shrewd move.
Apple makes me a happy customer. I don’t think ANYONE would have been mad if they lowered the price by $100. So this is a good move on Apple’s part. It will also give me a chance to buy stock after it goes down again tomorrow.
If they would add Exchange Support, there would be NO reason not to buy an iPhone.