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?
This was a very good move. Having just gotten an iPhone a mere 5 days ago, I called Appl Customer Service and asked for (and recieved with no hassles) the full $200 refund; but if I were past the published 14 day window that is company policy, I would have happily accepted the $100.
As mentioned in other posts, early adoptors know (or should know) that the price is always high for a new product (hell…my first CD recorder, purchased for my business in 1992, cost $6000…blank CD-R disks were $27 EACH). While I will have to agree that the iPhone price drop was very dramatic and unusually early in the game, I think that Apple’s response was wise and fair, all things considered. Most other companies would not have bothered, I’m sure.
This was a very shrewd and positive PR move by his Steveness.
How about I donate the $100 credit toward an add-on that implements GPS?
A perfectly reasonable compromise. Glad Apple is acknowledging the issue.
@RealityCheck
What “sting”? Prices drop. All the time.
I bought one of the first high-end home fax machines for what I thought was going to be a home-based business, back in the late 1980s. I paid $1700. Three years later, you could find a better machine for $200.
I also bought a top of the line Beta machine early in the VCR wars, about 1982. Paid $1100 (back when that was REAL money). Best VCR I ever owned, incredible features, but eventually it was replaced when I couldn’t find the movies I wanted to rent in Beta.
Some times I choose to be an early adopter. Other times (DVD players, cel phone, flat screen TV), I choose to wait. With the iPhone, I’ve waited. And I’m not sure I’m done waiting (Do I need 16MB, GPS and very likely 3G downloads? Uh, maybe?).
I’m glad a million people have been lovin’ their iPhones since day 1. But should they be shocked — shocked! — the price tumbled? No. The price of LCD HD has fallen by about 50% in the last year. Should people moan about it? Maybe, but it’s not anyone’s fault. Steve’s right: it’s just technology.
N/T
$100 off leopard sounds good to me
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This is great! Tell me how I can send an e-mail to Steve, please.
It’s a solid recovery from a shaky rollout of the price reduction. They should have anticipated the reaction, but everyone goofs. Jobs interview comments should have been more gracious and understanding, but I think this stikes a positive balance and is a very fair offer.
Frankly, as a stockholder, this annoys me more than losing the fscking whiners does. I’d rather lose them than give away money out of my pocket to make them feel better. Apple will gain far more customers with the price cut than it will lose by it, and that is money IN my pocket.
And I bought an iPhone first week. The increase in stock price since the iPhone was announced has been far more valuable than a measly $200 for buying early.
… I hear the stockholders are running to the Apple forums in droves to whine and complain.
I WANT MY IPHONE NOW!
Can I have 10€ refund from every second that I have to wait iPhone to happen in the Europe????
My advise to Steve is that you should take the iPhone price up in the US $2000 so that we can buy it here for 999€ all of them.
One year waiting is bad. Two years waiting makes you go crazy. Months after the release………………..
My worst nightmare is that they hava delayd the iPhone release in the Europe. Talks with the European telecompanies aren´t going well so they want to sell the iPhones in the US. I did buy some more AAPL now totalling 7000 shares.
MDN magic word: member
STEVE RULES … APPLE RULES … the right thing ….respect for the user family by the leadership … it’s great to be a Mac user .
This is what separates Apple Inc. from all the faceless Consumer Electronics Companies. Sony would have been piss-off, Apple saw an opportunity to smooth some feathers and generate more iPhone buzz with mega positive spin (which is worth more then the $75.00 to $55.00 per customer that it will cost them in the end) . While some FUDsters will say Apple should give all iPhone owners that paid more the full $200.00. The fact is the first 45-60 days of production of the iPhones, it did cost a lot more to make an iPhone then it does today. The multi-touch screen cost 50% to 75% less, now that the process to make them is fully automated. In the beginning each screen was vacuum sealed to the glass by hand. The optical glass even cost less now that the process to cut the sheets down to the proper iPhone size is computer automated. The nature of the electronic Biz is things cost more and margins are less at the beginning of a product life cycle then at the end of that cycle, the trick is to meet the margin in the middle. The promotional write off for the $100.00 Apple Store credit for early iPhone buyers will just help off set some of Apple’s Taxes. It’s a win win here.. enjoy it!
RE: ” 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).”
You mean the really DISHONEST PEOPLE don’t you Jamie?
http://fakesteve.blogspot.com/2007/09/happy-now-bitches.html
@ rob
Stop the BS – the $100 credit is still $100. I work in marketing for a larger coatings manufacturer and we offer this type of credit all of the time to settle customer complaints. It’s used widely throughout industry and it is a win-win situation for the supplier and the customer. The value is still there.
Don’t be an ass.
I’m still unhappy. This all seems like it was planned from the beginning. That letter has been sitting in a drawer waiting for this day. They had to know there would be an uproar over this. Add to that the fact that as a 4 gb iPhone buyer, I now own a phone that is basically obsolete about a month after I bought it. What I want is either an upgrade to the 8 gb phone, a $200 credit, or $100 in cash. This isn’t over as anyone who’s been reading the Apple discussion forums today can attest.
Just sent Apple a thanks and I don’t even own an iPhone. How many companies would have done this? If you appreciate it, let Apple know. Nothing like positive reinforcement.
And what an example of what people can do when they unite!
Obsolete?! WTF are you talking about?!
It is the same phone but half of the memory size of the bigger one. After 30 years it is collection item and you get your money back ten times the inflation. I have a 60 GB iPod Video and I haven´t managed to fill it up. I simply don´t have that much porn nor music. 4 GB iPhone is not obsolete! It will work happily many many years. My friend bought an iPod Shuffle because he liked it better. I said that it has not that much of capacity. He said that he does not need more capacity. iTunes takes care of that. I was quiet because he was right. Needs… you have to think what your needs are… What do you want? If this is what you want then it is you.
@ stop whining posters……
Why is it that people posting a valid problem or compliant have to be classified as whiners or babies? Why do so many MDN posters just swallow anything Apple shoves down their throat?
Steve Jobs in his open letter is admitting that Apple should do a better job taking care of their early iPhone customers since they trusted Apple. Further than that he even apologizes.
Therefore the people that were so called “whining” must have been justified in their complaints!
It would be nice if MDN posters could be a little more objective and be willing to push back if Apple is making a mistake.
Steve Jobs is definitely doing the right thing here….Apple does not need this negative publicity hanging over it. In fact this move will polish the Apple even more.
This definitely separates Apple from the HPs, Dells, etc. For all the zdnet bloggers saying Apple screwed their customers….You can now shove it….and eat your words.
Go Apple! Looking forward to getting more of your awesome products!
Oh please. Just get over it. How the heck is your phone obsolete? Does it do any less today than yesterday, or the day you bought it? No. And soon it will do more. So just let it go.
to Galloway and all the SHAREHOLDERS who are bitching NOW about the credit:
If you really knew anything about what makes a company a class act you’d look beyond profits and the money you claim you are “losing”. This will make your investment that much more valuable. A company consumers can trust is worth a helluva lot more than one you can’t. So STFU.
MDN magic word: suddenly… Suddenly I realized that I may need speeling chiker?
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I WANT MY IPHONE TOMMORROW!
Whine whine whine, how about those people who bought those huge plasma tv’s which seemed to drop monthly in price? You want it first you pay for it. Apple giving $100 towards the Apple Store is unnecessary but typical of how great a company like Apple is. Maybe two months is a short time frame, but I work in the cell phone industry and two months for a 30% drop is not uncommon as the new hot toy comes out. So suck it up! I live in Canada and can’t even get one.
bunch a f@%$#^ing whiney babies
everybody knows the first ones are the most expensive
is everyone going to bitch and whine when the bluray comes down in price?
just like every other thing in history
you whiney babies make me wanna puke.
i got my phone 3 weeks ago
i not whining
and i will not use the 100 dollar credit
you guys suck
I bought my 30 in Sony CRT HD TV eight years ago for 8000 bugs! Look at now, a 40 in LCD costing less than 2000 clams! I want my money back Sony!