Comments on: Week in review: Apple of my ire

Apple's Steve Jobs rained on his own iPod product parade by also announcing a $200 iPhone price drop, which angered early adopters.

[polar lim]

sigh~

sob sob i jz bought an ipod few months ago... now??!! coming out with new generation... T.T

[Claire Gaeta]

Cute Story

Having just bought a new shuffle for my daughter 3 weeks ago, and taking her old one, my immediate reaction was "OMG - the Nano is now selling for the same price we paid for the shuffle".

A normal thing in the mind of any single mom.

When I told my daughter I had read that Apple was considering collaboration with VW on the "I-Car" She said "Mom ...it will fall apart" "I-Rack" Mom - referring to the spoof video!

[manusharma]

Here's what it means and why Apple did it

Apple gave away nearly $2 billion to past and future customers with this price cut.

Short explanation:

What it means:
Unprecedented wealth making with margins and volumes unseen in the industry

Why Apple did it:
To preempt future competitors such as Google and others.

Long answer:
http://orangehues.com/blog/2007/09/iphones-200-price-cut-2-billion.html

[bcroner]

$600 is too expensive, $100 store credit is damned cheap

Jobs better do something about his pissed off customers. Maybe Apple is too greedy or something. Or maybe they're in financial pain so bad they can't take a big enough hit to appease their fan base.

[cwkoller]

New Territory for Apple - Users willing to cut some slack

Hundreds of thousands willingly paid $600 for the iPhone, and
many waited in line for hours on the day of its release to do so.
That's their choice. Apple, who is brand new to the mobile
phone market, is now seeing the strategic landscape more
clearly and is obviously making an aggressive move to bring on a
larger audience. That's their choice.

There's a lot of nervous players out there who have a lot to lose
if Apple succeeds. Apple, in turn, is adjusting its game in AGAIN
this brand new space for them. My read on the feedback so far
is that Jobs scored major points with users via his $100 store
credit offer. I'd like to see how any other major company would
have handled this play...

[bob1960]

Oh come on.... This is not SG1!

I normally remain silent on these blogs, but I am totally amazed at the anger expressed by those who a few weeks ago were more than willing to snub anybody who had "regular" cell phone. It reminds me of the commercial for Comcast and the guy with the tiger stripe tattoos... The iPhone is just a phone.

Listen folks, we are in a new era of technology where new ideas and amazing products are coming out every day. Most times Sales and Marketing departments slow down the process or kill it entirely by not believing in the product. I f designers could put to market everything that they came up with or could put together, we all would suffer from "Future Shock". IMHO, Steve Jobs talents are in strongly believing in a concept and product and pushing it to market. Whether that be by offering a sexy product or targeting it to existing fans of Apple. Or cutting prices so that there is an iPhone and/or iPod in every Christmas stocking... For the first time I think that the rest of the consumer market understands Jobs, while the Fanboys are crying foul.

Is the iPhone sexy? Yes. Is it savvy? Yes. Is it a good phone? Yes. Is it worth $600? Maybe. But people! IT IS JUST A PHONE!

I hate to use such a tacky SciFi reference... but let's put this all into perspective and not act like Jaffa just finding out the Goa'uld are false Gods.

OK... Now that I was taunted into SF-speak, I will shut up...

[mikegraham]

...or you're an ill-informed moron

The company has a huge market cap and enough cash reserves to
buy Gateway. Do you just make stupid comments in your spare
time or is it your full-time job?

[beemrdon]

suckers!

First of all, those that buy this stuff mostly want to be thought of as "hip", "cool", "with-it", etc.
They need tacit approval from others in their group and Apple products seem to give them the status that they so long for. Steve Jobs has done a masterful job of plugging into this group and creating a ready market for whatever expensive electronics of questionable value he sells. In short he has his sheep that he shears on a regular basis and laughs all the way to the bank.
Poor status seekers just got burnt for two bills...tisk, tisk.

[archer6]

Apples Laughing All The Way To The Bank

There are no surprises here except for the uninitiated first time Apple customers. Apple always over charges for it's products. Hey it's just a phone. For those who believe the iPhone is something special, they obviously haven't seen the other great phones offered for a fraction of the original price Apple charged. It's about time Apple takes some heat from people who know better. As far as the "credit" that's a joke. It's for future Apple purchases, so once again Apple rips off the customers.

[247mark]

Duh

First pays the worst in tech. Always. This even applies to the beloved Apple. These wait-overnight-at-the-store early adopters are a bunch of whiny cry babies. There might even be a Google phone in the not-too-distant future. Maybe Jobs will give you a refund if, 6 months after your purchase, you decide you want a Google phone. Cut with the brain-dead allegiance to the brand and think.

[fastfred1]

Grow Up!

Wait for the new phone from Dell.

[divyaboy]

He saved $100 Refunds are only going to people that still could return them

AT&T's 15 Day trial

[chongkwang]

Classic Mac Users! Get $500 back in your pocket! Dont renew .mac account

Seems like its only the loyal classic Mac users that are upset
about being the target of sleezy price gouging. The Nuevo PC
using ipod owners are used to lowclass marketing scams. I am
going to get my full iphone price returned to my pocket by not
renewing my over-priced .mac account. And with the $100
severance credit, buying a non-apple product.

The unconditional love I had for apple is gone, I feel my loyalty
was inappropriately used and the severence pay of $100 store
credit for my 20 years of apple promoting is just another
marketing trick to hook another sale out of me. They appear to
have joined the ranks of Motorola and the mainstream corporate
shark mentality killing off the trustworthy company that made
Apple special and high quality. Now it is just another
untrustworthy computer store out to trick its customers into
spending more money instead of letting the quality product sell
itself without the games.

Apple Classic vs. the tricks of M.S. Apple
1998 imac $1299........7/07 iphone $599
2007 imac $1199........9/07 iphone $399

We need to open 2 new companies: Apple classic (see left
column above) for Mac-users who want to continue to pay a
premium for a consistent, quality product and customer
treatment. and M.S. Apple for the PC ipod users who have
adapted to, and sheepishly accepted the deceptive bait and
switch tactics of mainstream low quality tech companies. By
premeditating the blatant misuse of customer loyalty, it looks
like apple is choosing to follow the latter path. Break-ups are
hard to do, but Im finding it easier everyday to not tell a PC user
at the airport how to reduce his suffering by getting a Mac.

[GeoNorth]

Price cuts...

Apple Classic vs. the tricks of M.S. Apple
1998 imac $1299........7/07 iphone $599
2007 imac $1199........9/07 iphone $399

You are aware that the iMac from 1998 is completely different to the 2007 iMac, yeah?

How much do you think an iMac from 1998 costs in 2007?

Can't speak for Macs, but PCs drop in price at pretty much the same rate as the iPhone. Can't compare the iPhone to other mobile phoes though, pretty much every phone over here in the UK is free on an 18 month (and in some cases 12 month) plan and some handsets do appear to have a shelf life of over a year.

What I can comment on is the second-hand market...

Nokia N73 from 2006 £149
Nokia 6630 from 2002 £40

In short, there is no need to seperate "Apple Classic" from "MS Apple" Apple is no better than any other technology manufacturer, they just have more famboys drinking the KoolAid, convince that every Apple product is less a computer, audio player or mobile phone and more Manna from heaven!

[Nodack]

:(

Cry, cry, cry, whine, whine, whine, boo hoo hoo.

Severence pay?

Go ahead and switch to non Mac everything and let us know how
that goes. LOL

You know you won't. You are just pissed off that they dropped
the price on something you bought. OMG how dare they!

Dude, you have read all of the polls and a vast majority of the
people have spoken and they say Apple doesn't own you a darn
thing and that Apple went overboard giving the rebates at all.

You had to have it right away. Stop whining. If you feel that
strong about it then go by all Dell products running vista. I'm
sure Dell cares about your feelings and you might be able to
sign up for their severence package. LOL

[_t3h]

... which IS a standard cable

... and the 5G video cable IS a standard cable. It's simply a 4-
position miniplug with the video on the fourth pin (so that
headphones can still be used). All you have to do is put the plugs
into different sockets if you get the non-apple cable.

[Lectriece]

Hold on a second...

If you weren't willing to dish out the cash for that ultra expensive phone, and just as expensive monthly bill... why'd you do it? I mean, come on. If it's really that important to you, you buy it. And now you have it. Aren't you happy with your technological wonder? Because if you really weren't, you wouldn't *****- you'd take it back to the store. You didn't HAVE to have it. It's a luxury. You can't go and ***** about how pricing changes. If you're tech smart enough to want one, and have the money to buy one in the first place... Is $100 suddenly the difference between making your rent this month? Seriously, people- If you've ever bought any tech product, you know the market prices drop insanely after the initial launch. If you were smart- you would have waited for it. Common sense. You don't deserve any credit. You were stupid. You bought the introduction price. Deal with it. You wasted your money, you got you're candy, and now they're giving you a gift of some money back that you totally don't deserve, yet you're gonna whine anyway. :/

[Haasman]

iPhone-Rebate: Good for you Steve & Apple

Good for you Steve & Apple!

You did a great job of marketing, building value and getting all the early adopters to buy. The "unobtanium" marketing principle in full swing.

Wow, and I still remember all those people in newspaper photos and late night news in line waiting and then rushing out of the stores holding up "their" iPhones!

When was there ever a discount for bleeding edge, for early adopters? Never. But Steve and company did. They took care of them.

But much more importantly, let's see what happens when the new masses of Apple customers force Apple's "genius bars" into critical mass. Will Apple lower customer service or invest to meet the burgeoning unrealistic expectations of face time with the experts?

(it kind of makes iPhone rebates silly in comparison)