“In light of the brouhaha that has emerged in the wake of Apple’s iPhone price cut, you can view Steve Jobs one of two ways. Either he’s a deer caught in the headlights of consumer outrage, or he’s a calculating, Machiavellian manipulator of his minions. Either he misjudged the ire of the early adopters, or he shrewdly cultivated the free publicity the price cut engendered as the holiday selling season approaches,” Rich Duprey writes for The Motley Fool.
“I tend to picture Jobs as the embodiment of the principles espoused in Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince. He simply cannot be naive enough to think such a swift, sudden price cut wouldn’t draw early buyers’ ire. He could not have misjudged the backlash such a move would create. Instead, I think it’s a cunning move crafted to keep the iPhone the market’s must-have product,” Duprey writes.
“While the early adopters helped drive the initial sales, speculation has suggested that those sales subsequently began to slow. (The company announced [yesterday] that it had sold 1 million iPhones in just 74 days.) Jobs says he didn’t need the price cut to meet the company’s iPhone sales projections, and frankly, I believe him,” Duprey writes.
“Bestowing $100 Apple Store gift cards upon previous buyers [is] a win-win situation for Apple,” Duprey writes.
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Linux Guy And Mac Prodigal Son” for the heads up.]
The buzz of the $200 price cut seemed to kill or outplay the new ipod lineup. No one is mentioning the new devices unfortunately.
Yeah, OK, it was shrewd. Ya know what? We get it. Let’s move on.
I have been approached but numerous people half-taunting me about the price cut on my iPhone. None of these people have an iPhone, but all are now aware of the big cut and the new, lower price. This was all expert media and market manipulation. I get some money back from Apple so I am happy. A new group of buyers are now mulling over buying at the reduced price. We all win.
Ah, another editor-waiting-in-the-wings. Spruce up your resume, CB, and apply for the job here at MDN. I’ll bet you’re hired in mere nanoseconds!
One person in my office has teased me about the $200 price cut…then he went and bought an iPhone post-price-drop.
I think this is a great ideal, and I love the $100 gift card too!
Somehow I can’t see someone with such a massive ego wanting to write and apology for cutting the price so soon. I don’t buy this as ‘strategy.’
The early adopters are a relatively small group compared to the potential future customers for iPhone. Now, everyone who did not buy at $599 are all feeling a bit smug for not being “suckers”; they are even more likely to buy at $399 because of all that free media coverage. Well played, Apple…
What do you get when you cross P. T. Barnum and Niccolo Machiavelli?
Of course. It’s Steven P. Jobs.
I love it when he manipulates the leftist media.
Careful though. Just remember that both ole PT and Niccolo ended badly.
Hmmm, I read the article. Either they are a click troll or they hate Apple.
“Don’t believe for a minute that Jobs actually wants to move the iPhone to the masses, as he writes in his mea culpa email. Were that the case, the iPhone would be available from Verizon (NYSE: VZ), Sprint Nextel (NYSE: S), and Deutsche Telekom’s (NYSE: DT) T-Mobile service. Its exclusive availability through AT&T;(NYSE: T) shows that Jobs’ strategy was never about getting as many people as possible “in the iPhone ‘tent.'” It was always about profits, and about moving iPhone sales. There’s nothing necessarily wrong with that, but don’t kid yourself into thinking that Jobs’ moves are all about assuaging angry customers.”
I think that this article should have been labeled as a “Think before you click” article. 🙁
Writers who do not think, just write. Its sad.
en
Steve isn’t Machiavelli, he’s Howard Roarke from The Fountainhead: uncompromising in bringing his vision to fruition, even if it requires a fight with the existing power brokers (e.g., record labels, NBC), and ultimately we all benefit.
On another board, some naysayer claimed the look of the new nanos (ironically, the fatboy that lots of people hate) was a ripoff of the Creative Zen. Here’s my reply:
———–
This made me think of an exchange in The Fountainhead where the protagonist, Howard Roarke (an arrogant but brilliant guy who Steve Jobs reminds me of quite a bit), finally meets Ellsworth Toohey, the critic who’s been interfering with his plans:
Ellsworth Toohey: “Tell me, Mr. Roarke, what do you think of me?”
Howard Roarke: “I don’t think of you.”
Apple has sold 110 million iPods. It’s safe to say they don’t need to take design cues from Creative or anyone else.
———–
OK, sorry for the tangent. It just irks me to see Jobs compared to someone sinister like Machiavelli when his efforts pay dividends for all of us.
Machiavelli was not sinister; He was a scholar in his times. And a special time it was– in what is now mosty Italy. The area was made up of many little small kingdoms with differing styles of government in each. The great study of what works and what did not is what is titled “The Prince”. Machiavelli was very pragmatic in his analysis, with frequent references to Roman and Greek times, and blueprinted the way to be evil as well as good in ones persuit of power.
All in all it is still a good read. Human nature is yet the same today!
I am encouraging everyone I see to donate their iPhone rebate to a needy school or daycare or nursing home that could use some new Apple computer hardware. Try to find multiple people to donate to the same school and they may be able to buy whole computers at no cost. Remember, it is tax deductible in many cases.
Pass the word on!
So Apple does something stupid, and it’s “smart” and “planned” for the sole reason that nobody could believe a company would do something that stupid?
Very circular logic…
Please. If that was the case, they would have provided the $100 credit details that day or close to it. Which reminds me, have they given the credit details yet?
You stated, “Steve isn’t Machiavelli, he’s Howard Roarke from The Fountainhead.” You’ve taken Steve away from a Machiavellian equivalence, and instead merely given him a uniformity with one of Rand’s characters. From an uber-parity to an unter-correspondence! Why so rude? Do you personally hate Steve, or are you actually a stealthy undercover agent for the MS KGB?
i think fatboy chose at&t;as the main carrier, because it works best in cupertino. wwhd….what would howard (roarke) do? one thing for sure, he wouldn’t eat a double patty sandwich on sourdough before making a stupid decision. he remembered the “i” but forgot about the “phone” in iPhone. let’s not forget about the fundamentals, simple..voice..communication.
can’t wait for samsung’s new release.
in case you didn’t catch the sarcasm, at&t;coverage sucks like a cheap hooker in hollywood. you pay the money, but it doesn’t quite get you all the way there.