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September 6, 2007

Apple: Early Adopters Get $100

Yesterday, Apple announced that they were slashing the price on the iPhone by $200 - the 8GB phone, formerly priced at $599, was now $399.

This is clearly great news for Apple (they'll sell a gadzillion of them), great news for phone buyers (a great phone is now cheaper), and bad news for people who ragged on Apple's pricing.

However, a number of people in the Mac community lost their shit about the price cut, feeling, in no small way, that they were victimized/gouged/screwed when they bought their iPhone for its formerly-suggested retail price.

I am not one of these people. The iPhone was worth $599 to me, I paid $599, I'd pay $599 again. It's an amazing product. I've also been around long enough to know that a) v1 is never as good as you think it'll be, b) capacities/capabilities will go up, and c) prices will come down. It's the nature of being early.

Well, today, Apple announced that they're going to give an $100 Apple Store credit to all the early iPhone buyers out there:

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.

...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.

Clearly, I'll take the $100, but I'm really surprised by this. The goodwill Apple is buying with this move is astounding, and, frankly, cheap - they're going to give away $100M (1M iPhone customers x $100 per customer) to basically protect their brand.

Wow, is all I can say. Smart move, folks.

Posted by Gavin Shearer at September 6, 2007 12:57 PM. Posted to Apple.

Comments

Sigh...I like getting free money, but the entitlement of it all is just so inane

Posted by: bynkii Author Profile Page at September 6, 2007 2:13 PM

I'm not very business-savvy, but if Apple is giving away $100 in store credit don't they actually stand to make money (or at least increase sales) from this? Chances are, some people will use that credit to buy something that (1) costs more than $100, and/or (2) they weren't planning on buying before they got the credit... Am I missing something?

Posted by: netsirk Author Profile Page at September 7, 2007 10:23 AM

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