Early iPhone Adopters Get $100 Credit
Apple dropped a bomb two days ago and cut the price of the iPhone $200 to help boost sales of the pricy gadget through the next year. This was great news to anyone who hasn’t purchased one yet due to the high cost. Those who plunked down their hard earned cash already for the phone got royally screwed with the drop. Apple has answered their cries with a very favorable compromise. They are offering a $100 credit to everyone who purchased the phone at full price before the cut. It’s rare that a huge company like Apple would do such a thing. Granted, you have to give the money back to the company, but at least you can get some choice Apple products with the credit.
Make the jump for the full text of the announcement by Steve Jobs.
Jobs apologizes for iPhone price cut; Apple to issue $100 credit [Computer World]
[via Aeropause]
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
Toots
Posted to Miscellany on 7 September 2007
· Comments (9)
Other stuff like this: apple, credit, iphone, price cut
Thats still $100 sucker..I mean early adopter tax...
Yeah, he's a real hero...Lower the price of a very visible and hyped product only three months after launch, thereby tricking your loyal fanbase into paying $200 more for the iPhone AND using that loyalty to push them over to AT&T...and only giving them half that $200 back in store credit AFTER they complain.
Can we use the term $teve Job$ now?
I dunno, I'm a little confused. Did people really think the at-launch iPhone was going to be the best deal ever, or that nothing better would ever come along?
Apologizing for a price cut seems like the ultimate in bizarre.
The iPhone is hot sh*t - if that many people were willing to pay too much for a phone, why in the world should they deserve a refund a few months later? They made a decision that turned out - to nobody's surprise - to be an expensive one.
I payed the 600, with cash no less so no credit card price protection, knowing that the price would come down eventually, but not just 2 months after it was released. Now I know there is an early adopter tax and I was ready to pay it, but a 200 dollar premium for being off by 2 months is unreasonable. The xbox360 has seen merely a 50 dollar price drop in 2 YEARS! I was still ready to eat it though, I wanted the thing so bad I chose to go for it, so the news that I'll get a store credit is still better than a kick in the face. So it works out to paying 100 dollar premium for buying early, I don't love it, but I can live with it.
Suckers are the ones that bought one without ever considering future price drops and upgrades and then act surprised. I'm not surprised. Apple has done it before and I knew that it would probably happen here and I was ok with that. When I bought my Macbook Pro it wasn't 6 months that they upgraded it to Core2. With the iPhone, in my own case, the benefits outweighed the costs and I knew what the risks were. It was just irritating for the risks to play out so fast.
I'm kind of with Tiny Dancer. I can understand people being a bit surprised by such a big price drop... maybe even bummed, but... are people actually *complaining* about this? Sorry, it just seems like people are eager to complain these days. The PS3 isn't dropping in price fast enough, and the iPhone is dropping in price... too fast? Do I have that right?
Look, I'm an early adopter. I paid a lot for my phone when it came out and it's worth what I paid for it. As Tiny so observantly mentioned, nobody who buys a phone off the bat expects it the price to stay at top dollar, and if you get pissed off every time the price drops, you've got no place buying a product the day it comes out anyway. You're paying for new technology, and that costs money. My plasma is over $500 cheaper now than when I bought it 3 months ago. That's just life. Not sure why people love to use terms like "i was tricked" about something like a price drop. Wake up kids, this is how technology goes.
I think it was a factor of that it dropped in just two months and was a big $200 drop. 360 and PS3 owners would have gone ballistic too if they had a significant price drop in just two months. If it was $100 drop or had at least been 3 months out and much closer to the holidays say November, I think there would have not been an issue. I do not fault Apple as a company because they are looking to move iPhones and despite what they are saying, they must be short of their 1 million units goal and missing targets.
To their benefit, now that it is $399, it is in my threshold of buying it which I am considering.
For those who have it: pros and cons. Wish list for things that need to be fixed or improved. What are the major pluses (that not just dwell on the negatives). Have any of you tricked the sign up so you can go prepaid? Pros and cons of that?
Thanks!
Technology changes everyday, and prices change with it. Anything can happen, and its stupid to complain about it.
I swear to steve this is the first time i heard someone complain about lowering the price of something.
Spaz brings up a good point: I wonder if the volume of complaints stems in part from the number of initial iPhone buyers for whom the iPhone was their first "buy-it-the-day-it-comes-out" must-have gadget. Imagine millions of people experiencing that frustration at the same moment!
If so, even the backlash is a good thing for Apple: it's just that many more "gadget noobies" getting their first blood on the steep price curve of the iPhone...
My only issue has been lack of 3g. Since they started making 3rd party apps it does just about everything a Palm device would do, plus all the extra Applely stuff like the touch screen and ipod. I've been stuck out and wanting to check some web page and EDGE tends to drop off in my area. It's not a huge issue since im near wifi most of the day.
I'd also like it if you could password protect certain apps, like Mail. Often I want to show people my phone but I don't want them messing with my email. Official 3rd party apps would be nice, but the unofficial ones are preety cool. GPS is not needed, especially if you already have one in your car.
The phone automatically locks, even when your using the iPod, which is not good when your driving or listening to music since you have to "slide to unlock". It would be nice if it had a car mode or something to keep it from locking while on the road. VoiceDial is really needed and you should be able to access the contact list from the main screen and not the phone screen. Native IM support would be nice, implemented exactly like the SMS app. The current hack doesn't allow you to receive messages when your not actually in the app. Mail needs a batch delete option. Select, Copy and paste needs to be added too.
Video recording is also sorely needed.
Thats all I can think of to warn you about. The 3rd party apps solve a lot of issues (the real ones, not the web apps) so be sure to check out AppTapp Installer if you get one. I was worried about apples offical ban on 3rd party apps, but the hacking community has really stepped up to the plate and hit it out of the park. Once you install AppTapp, you don't even need to use your computer anymore, just download little apps right to the phone. It's core functions, mail, web, music, video playback, phone, photo/camera, all have worked better than advertised for me. The touch screen is extremely precise and comfortable. It works as you would naturally expect. The keyboard is great, especially if your used to T9 like I was. If your a heavy texter and use a physical keyboard, you might not like it, but it works well enough for light to moderate texters (you can really fly once you get the hang of it). iPod accessories (like a steering wheel remote, ipod hifi, car charger) all work fine.
Thats my list of pro/con. All of the stuff it does that is as advertised I left off, you can read the reviews.
4 out of 5 stars in my book. One star off for the lack of 3g and the software and interface tweaking and refining it needs. Except for the 3g, there is not a thing one thing wrong with it that cannot be fixed with a software update or 3rd party apps.
Userful blog. Thanks!