![\"user-pic\"](\"/css/images/default.gif\")
WAAAAHHHHH! WAAHHHHHH! I'm unhappy that business is business!! WAHHHHH.
It's just like another poster said: What is this, the Communist?
Free Market Capitalism rules!
WAAAAHHHHH! WAAHHHHHH! I'm unhappy that business is business!! WAHHHHH.
It's just like another poster said: What is this, the Communist?
Free Market Capitalism rules!
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-66994-100x100.png\")
boo fricken hoo
I think the consumerist nailed it. You can't be the first in line to get the newest high tech gadget there is, and then be mad when the company decides to change the price a few months later. No matter when the price drops, there are going to be people who bought it last week for that higher price. You can't make everyone happy.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-60885-100x100.png\")
I'm a shareholder too, but I don't go out and buy everything they put out. I let the fanboys do it. Same thing with Starbucks - I own their stock, but don't buy Starbucks everyday. I let the addicts do it. :-)
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-69858-100x100.png\")
\"Waaah. I don't like the way the tech world works, that things get introduced at one price and cost less a little while later. Waaaaahhhh!\"
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-124537-100x100.png\")
I feel 200 times better for forcing myself to wait to buy an iPhone.
What I dont seem to understand is why is he or anyone else surprized by a cell phone dropping in price? I bought a razor 3 years ago for $199.00 with a two year contract. 90 Days later Best buy has the same phone for $49 with a two year contract, 75% reduction in 90 days. News flash cell phones go down in price quick.
Why all the fuss over a company making a great product cheaper? This is nuts.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-103994-100x100.png\")
Prices of everything drops quickly. My $1000 Sony Alpha camera can be got for 1/2 that price now.
I think the real reason for the iPhone price drop is that the demand for it was A LOT less they they predicted - and instead of having shelves full of the product, they decided to drop the price earlier then usually - WHY so early? Because other phones by other people will be out soon that will outperform the iPhone (newer & better phones are always coming out) - so they need to sell as many as possible as quickly as possible.
If demand was still great for the phone, you would have never seen the price drop. It has nothing to do with screwing over the people who already purchased the phone at all.
But it is a risk you take when buying the newest item when it first comes out.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-82296-100x100.png\")
Get over yourself. He willingly purchased the product at a price he thought was acceptable. He is owed nothing, nor should he be given anything. It's a lame complaint, especially with Apple and their notorious product cycles. Does it maybe suck? Sure, but come on. I say this as a proud Apple supporter. No sympathy is warranted.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-63225-100x100.png\")
Yeah, and Nintendo, I paid $150 for a Gamecube 2 years ago, can I get some money back. Also, Safeway, I bought some Oreo's for $3.19 last month, and now see you have them at a club card price of 2 for $4.00, cut me a check. It's called product research, try learning it before you make another foolish purchase of the \"latest and greatest\" gadget. I swear, you'd think if America is going to praise the means of consumerism, they'd teach these idiots how to shop. Most people with a fairly grade of common sense would know not to go out and buy the first issue of an overhyped product. Google \"Xbox360 red ring of death.\"
Early adopters getting screwed is a time-honored American tradition like apple pie, MTV, and the baby jesus.
M should whine to his rich parents until they sell some of that Apple stock and buy him a shiny new SUV to help him get over the trauma of paying too much for a cell phone.
Hey, you purchased a $600 phone only usable on the worst network, which cannot be unlocked and charges you for ringtones. Seriously... bed, made, lie in it.
Can I have the purchase price of my PowerBook 145 applied towards the purchase of a new Apple product?
Wait...Apple doesn't owe me anything?
People can say that Apple was completely in their rights to drop the price, and they're right. But to do it this soon and to this degree seems to show a total tone-deafness to how their consumer base might react. The people who bought iPhones in the last 2 months have had to defend their high price to family, friends, and strangers, and now we look more than a little foolish. I and most iPhone buyers did not realize that we were essentially paying a $200 fee for the privilege of having an iPhone for one or two months before the rest of the country.
Before people chime in and say that this kind of thing happens all the time in consumer electronics, I must point out that it really doesn't. I can't remember the last time the price of a major new device was cut by 1/3 2 months after its introduction. Even the struggling PS3 took forever to get a price drop. And it especially doesn't happen with Apple. Apple's strategy up until now has almost always been to keep the price on current models steady for quite some time and then release a new model at the same or a slightly lower price. This kind of price-slashing is absolutely unprecedented. Look at the video iPod, for example. The 5G iPod was introduced on October 12th, 2005 and wasn't updated up September 12th, 2006! And even then, the update was a very minor one. That model was around from September 12th, 2006 until today. Most iPod models have enjoyed similarly long stretches with no updates or price cuts. So yeah, I think people are justified in being a bit angry.
I don't think Apple should refund everyone's money, but it would be a great goodwill gesture (and thank-you to the people who supported and evangelized the iPhone) to give people something like an iTunes gift certificate.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-3110-100x100.png\")
\"My name is M [redacted]. I'm a [redacted].\"
Is the second redacted \"loser\"?
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-1485-100x100.png\")
i understand this guy's complaint, and the others Apple 'fanboys' that feel cheated by this. it really it awful for a company to drop the price of something so soon after introducing the product and dropping it so drastically. 90 days for a $200 price difference is quite steep, and very atypical for Apple to do something like this.
this guy isnt complaining about over-paying. he clearly understands that electronic prices drop in the makert place with time. he knows he paid more to get it the first day, and that was ok in his book. they just shouldnt change so drastically and recently.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-72554-100x100.png\")
Sorry, but $599 for the phone was an acceptable price for you, and you paid it. The price of most consumer goods, electronics in particular, drops over time. You should be neither surprised nor mad that they dropped the price. If you are, then $599 wasn't really an acceptable price for that product to you, but you paid it anyway. No one screamed when Motorola introduced the RAZR V3 at $500, then incrementally dropped the price by $50 every 2 months or so. They were merely selling it to everyone at their maximum acceptable price.
A common argument against those complaining about the price drop is that they were perfectly fine with the price they paid for it at the time, and that this sort of thing happens with technology.
Yes, it's true that we (I am an iPhone user as well) were fine with the price we paid for the product 2 months ago, and this sort of thing DOES happen with technology all the time.
What angers us is not that it happened, but that it happened 2-fucking-months later. When I bought my iPhone, I expected the price to drop eventually as Apple does with every iPod product they make. If you look at their history, they oftentimes will lower the price of their product 6 months to a year later. Then, once a year has passed, they'll introduce a new iteration of the same product. This is what I and every other iPhone-buyer expected to happen.
But instead of doing what they are known for, Apple went and cut the price by $200 only 2 months later. What this shows is that the value of the product is significantly less than what we paid for it, and it also shows that Apple obviously gouged the price at the start when they didn't necessarily need to. It makes me feel betrayed, as well, for being essentially coerced into paying more for a product that costs less.
I can't think of any other product that naturally loses value so quickly. Yes, it is true that all technology becomes obsolete the second you buy it. But no technology, in my memory, has lost close to 50% of its initial value in only 60 days.
I don't expect Apple to turn around and say \"oops, our bad. Here's your $200 cash.\" That'd be foolish business. They'd be giving away $200 million all at once. What I DO expect, however, is for Apple to offer something. Give us a credit towards other Apple products and maybe an extended AppleCare warranty on our iPhones. Show us you care, Apple, about your die-hard fans: the people who have allowed your business to thrive and begin penetrating the average consumer marketplace. Just give us SOMETHING as a consolation for the sucker punch we just received right in our gut.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-94321-100x100.png\")
When...
ever...
in the history of gadgets...
ever, ever....
has it been a good idea to be an early adopter...
or buy the fricken thing the day it comes out?
Consider it a fanboy tax.
Pay it with pride.
Someone call the waaaaaabulance.
You waited in line for a device that was overpriced and, like all first gen products, would most likely have flaws or user issues(which has been proven).
You are a sucker. If you get a woody from being the first to have a new device, so be it...but don't cry when you finally realize you weren't as smart as the rest of us.
Survival of the fittest..in this case the smartest. Lesson learned...move on...stop being a band wagon, uppity show off.
Common sense FTW! L3rn some restraint
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-71651-100x100.png\")
Dear Mr. Jobs,
Please make life fair! It's not fair that life isn't fair!
Yours Truly,
John Q. Crybaby
@icruise: \"The people who bought iPhones in the last 2 months have had to defend their high price to family, friends, and strangers, and now we look more than a little foolish.\"
CLUE CLUE CLUE!!!!!!
You were foolish. Even if the price hadn't dropped. They all know it. You should have listened and didn't. You wanted what you wanted and were willing to pay whatever to get it. Part of that price is that you now look like a HUGE moron to family and friends instead of just looking like a GREAT BIG moron.
\"I own (and currently use) a Macbook Pro, an iPod Video (80 GB), a 2G iPod Nano (8 GB), and a 2G iPod Shuffle, two Airport Expresses, and an 8 GB iPhone; and through my family am an Apple shareholder.\"
If he stopped buying anything and everything Apple he could probably afford to own some of Apple's stock himself, instead of having to own it \"through his family\" (e.g. \"Daddy bought it but I call it mine anyway\".
@icruise: \"The people who bought iPhones in the last 2 months have had to defend their high price to family, friends, and strangers, and now we look more than a little foolish.\"
No. You just have to explain how electronics pricing works. Who's a little foolish? The person who doesn't understand what's going on, or the person who decided $x was a worthy price for item Y at the time the purchase was made?
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-55242-100x100.png\")
The ones who are really crying now are the douches who are selling Iphones on ebay. Now with the price drop they get to eat a $200 fee for each one they bought to resell.. HA! HA!
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-86677-100x100.png\")
So noone is blaming AT&T? I'm sure they wanted their share of the money to be made from the iphone, hell they invested enough in it so its pretty damn stupid to not consider that they are to blame. Or maybe that because of all the iphone sells, and the manufactor of countless more ipod videos (The new ones) Apple got a huge break on all the parts and is passing down the savings.
Or maybe you should consider that PRICES TEND TO CHANGE AT THE DROP OF A HAT!
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-72568-100x100.png\")
Let's see.. every reviewer out there and people out there said the price was too steep.
There was a report saying that Apple's margins with around 50% on the Iphone by the component breakdown anyalist.
Logical path.. drop the price to be in line with industry standards.. Apple tried to sell high, but didn't get the market penetration they wanted, and you know AT&T is trying to push up the subscriber rate. Everyone and thier mother saw the price drop coming.
Even though I think early adopters are idiots, I can't help but regard this as a stupid move on Apple's part. When you make so much of your money off of customer devotion -- not just loyalty, but devotion -- it's really not a good idea to throw your most dedicated worshippers under the bus like this.
Apple doesn't \"owe\" these people anything, but they owe it to themselves to avoid alienating the people who give them the most money.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-74911-100x100.png\")
As an AAPL shareholder, I'd be irritated if Apple DIDN'T extract maximum value from the fanbois. A subsequent price drop is just about selling to the next tranche of demand.
Is it REALLY so stupid, immature, whiny etc to be upset at this kind of price drop? Even if you don't think Apple should do a darned thing about it, I would think that you could understand the psychology involved. This is a pretty major drop, and one that flies in the face of Apple's previous behavior. I'm not saying that we're *entitled* to anything -- just that from a customer relations standpoint (and isn't that what this site is all about?), this seems like a bad move. I don't think anyone would have been this upset if they had dropped by price by $100 instead of $200, or if they had waited a bit longer.
\"So that this message might have some meaning to you other than the ramblings of a disenchanted fanboy, allow me to introduce myself. My name is M [redacted]. I'm a [redacted].\"
Mongoloid. God awful dummy.
I *LOVE* Mad Libs! Thanks Consumerist!
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-6764-100x100.png\")
Why is the Consumerist now a defacto iphone price-drop complaint site?
@icruise: \"The people who bought iPhones in the last 2 months have had to defend their high price to family, friends, and strangers\"
You might be a lot happier in life if you'd stick up for yourself and realize that it is no one's business how you spend your own money but your own. Maybe a spouse has a right to challenge your purchase. But friends and strangers?
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-21566-100x100.png\")
When you released the iPhone I was one of those pathetic fanboys seen in pictures around the country depicting the spell you had cast over my generation.
I hate to say it but it sounds like you still ARE a pathetic fanboy. Suck it up. You paid to get your iPhone before everybody else.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-113401-100x100.png\")
If his first Macintosh was a Performa 575, then all you are is a bandwagon Mac user.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-88841-100x100.png\")
Two telling quotes from the letter:
\"I paid $600 for the 8 GB iPhone without complaint.\"
\"I'm not hurting for the two hundred dollar price drop at all, let me be clear.\"
Translation: Hi! I got my toy and paid what I thought was a fair price and anyway, what does it matter because I don't care about the money at all. That's right, at all. Am I clear? I just want to be very clear. So there is no mistake I don't care about the money.
Now...let me spend the rest of the email refuting my own words.
Waaaaah.
You lowered the price.
shut up, apple fan boy.
Jobs didn't hold a gun to your head and force you to buy your stupid iPhone when it first came out.
Welcome to business 101.
If you buy a house at a premium and then your neighbor sells his for far less, you don't complain to the previous owner. You made the choice to pay to have it first. Deal with it.
L.O.S.E.R.
@liquisoft: The amount of the price drop is irrelevant; the early adopters would be bitching just as much about a $50 price drop. The people lined up around the block outside of every Apple store willing to shell out $599 for the phone sent pricing signals to Apple: that the price was fair. Add to that the limited availability of the product at the time, and the price premium makes perfect sense. Once higher inventories of the product eliminated the availability problem, the price would naturally come down. When all hot gaming consoles first go on the market, stores can charge whatever they want (and early adopters can sell on eBay and charge outrageous prices). But once they become widely available, that price premium disappears. That's exactly what happened here.
It makes me feel betrayed, as well, for being essentially coerced into paying more for a product that costs less.
I'm pretty sure \"coerced\" isn't the word you wanted here. No one but you can force you to buy an iPhone.
It's true that we all generally expect electronics prices to drop after some period of time. But if that's true, why is a $200 price drop after two months worse for you than a $200 price drop after six months? If you can expect to pay less for it at some point in the future, your choices are to wait for that price cut or buy before the price cut, and you chose the latter. I'm not here to knock anyone's choice, but it really is a choice and I guess I don't understand why people might feel they deserve some kind of compensation for choices they made freely.
I'm honestly just curious about this, not trying to be judgmental or provocative: you say you expected the price to drop six months to a year later, and with this knowledge/assumption, you decided to buy at full price. If you had known the price would drop after two months, would you have waited for the price drop?
BTW.. the price drop I believe is a preeminant attack on upcoming smart phones that'll feature alot of the same technology the iPhone currently features.
you DID get a \"service\" for paying $200 extra over the now-current price. you got to use it first. And it's perfectly \"fair\", when you consider that back in early July, EVERYBODY was speculating on price reductions in the future. Too bad that the future happened a little to fast for you, but them's the breaks for being an early adopter.
Being the kind of consumer that you proclaim to be, you should be familiar with the way Apple does business, so cry us a river. keep it up long enough and you might just be able to raise the level of the Aral Sea, but those of us who waited, or are STILL waiting, have every reason to cry tears of joy instead.
Good things come to those who wait. ;)
I can understand why M is upset, but M is speaking as if Apple owes him something for his willingness to overpay for a phone in the first place. It's not like they forced the thing on him, he willingly chose to take the risk of getting screwed. Maybe he'll think twice the next time Steve Jobs offers up some \"revolutionary\" device for fanboy consumption...
Yeah, yeah. Boo hoo. If you spent $600 on a phone for the first three months it was out, you should expect bugs, problems, and a higher price. Hasn't this guy ever heard of being an early adopter?
Anyway.
The real thing people should be pissed off about is the ringtone deal. Pay the same price - again - to use a song you already bought as a ringtone? What the fuck kind of nonsense is that?
And while I've heard that ringtones are considered seperate from full songs for DMCA purposes, I still think Steve Jobs has got a lot of balls to put a dumbed-down waveform editor in iTunes and charge us a buck every time we use it... and THEN act like he's done us some great big fucking favor. I mean, did you watch the keynote?
Pbbbt.
Dear [Redacted]:
While you're at it, please mention in your follow-up correspondence with Mr. Jobs that a year ago, I purchased a Macbook Pro. Apple has since moved to Dual-Core 2 processors, Santa Rosa, LED backlighting and is about to introduce a new release of OS X.
I'd like to get something back as well, since it's only fair. Would it be greedy to expect something for the sturdy Apple ][/c in my basement as well?
Thanks,
Zentec
Dear [Redacted] and Zentec:
[Redacted], your $200 was spent creating envy and awe in all your friends as well as used for amusing yourself for hours at the office when you should have been working. You were an early adopter and Apple loves its early adopters; it's just a tough love.
Furthermore, some old crusty programmer once told me that there's nothing wrong with being a pioneer; just some days, you come back to the fort stuck full of arrows.
Zentec, no and no.
Hope this helps,
Steve Jobs
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-41338-100x100.png\")
To the people whining about the price drop saying it's too soon. Um if a product is not selling to their expectations what do you expect them to do? Keep the price? No, they will drop the price in hopes of driving in more sales. Thank god none of you are CEOs of any company.
@CumaeanSibyl: The iPhone was more popular with the iPod owners then it was with the Mac owners. Not the \"true\" devotees that were screwed :P
Wow. I'm surprised all the whiners are getting $100. I guess whining does work.
To all who have iphones, a question: Are you happy with your iphone?
Yes? Well then STFU and quit whining. Trying to say you are \"entitled\" to some compensation because you cannot google any other item that decreased in price by 1/3rd in two months is pathetic. Apple owes you nothing.
And to those of you who say \"it's really not a good idea to throw your most dedicated worshippers under the bus like this...,\" why not? Think about it - Apple has your money and they will continue to get it. What are you going to do? Get a PC with Windows? Get rid of your entire collection of itunes? Yeah, right...
I overpaid for my Apple IIe.
Still waiting for my refund check.
Dear M,
Please give me those two minutes of my life back.
Dear Apple,
Re: your 1/3 price drop so soon after introducing the iPhone:
It's correct, but it ain't right.*
............
*Credit: Yogi Berra (I think)
Even money says all the fanbois whining about the price drop would ditch their 8gb iphones if Apple announced a 16 gb iphone tomorrow...
Apple is going to be giving people who bought the iPhone before the price drop $100 in store credit. They didn't have to do this, but it was the right thing to do. I'm very satisfied.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-1298-100x100.png\")
While I'm sick of all the whining, the early adopters will get $100 Apple credit in a few days, and that will be the end of it...
I can't think of any other product that naturally loses value so quickly. Yes, it is true that all technology becomes obsolete the second you buy it. But no technology, in my memory, has lost close to 50% of its initial value in only 60 days.
Try nearly every cell phone that comes out and is supported by a carrier. Remember the RAZR? Hell, remember the Blackjack?
I think Apple should have given every whiner a free download of the Smiths song \"I Don't Owe You Anything.\"
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-90329-100x100.png\")
I think if you buy anything Apple, you overpaid... Ok I am done with that joke...
No reason to whine and complain, it happens all the time. Demand declines because of the price, lower the price. Sony has already done it with their PS3. the competition tends to follow suit like Microsoft with the Xbox 360. Though given, the iphone was overpriced to begin with.
I'm an apple fanboy, and this guy needs to grow up.
The damn thing was overpriced to begin with, but he paid it. He's lucky that he can afford it- and own Apple stock! Oooh!
\"I have too much money! Boohoo!\"
Screw him.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-110033-100x100.png\")
Ummmmmm.......What's an iPhone?
Steve jobs just wrote an open letter to all iphone owners promising a 100$ gift card to all of them because of the price drop.
SO all you idiots who waited in line for a 600$ product that should have been 400 in the first fuckin place can now go in and buy.... what?? Iphone accessories? ...most likely, What does apple sell of any use under 100$?
Another Apple fanboy (lite) chiming in to say no sympathy for early adopters.
Expensive, saddled with horrible calling plans and a glacially slow data network - only the blindest of fanboys would have bought the iPhone right away.
But some did.
And then they whined some more when Apple made a smart business move and cut the price to make the phone available to more consumers.
And now Jobs has backed down to losers like M and given them a $100 credit.
Grow a pair, Steve.
$100!!!
@str1cken: Regarding ringtones, I use Audio HiJack Pro to snag the audio from any sound going through my Mac (audio/movie soundtrack/tv dialog, etc). Save it as an MP3 and send it to my phone via Bluetooth (a Nokia E62). Instant ringtone and it was free.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-126486-100x100.png\")
I really fail to see the problem. All these consumers paid what they felt was a fair price at the time for a product. I don't hear anyone complaining that the product wasn't as described or that the price was unexpected.
You got what you paid for. End of story. If you felt that $400 was a fair price and $600 wasn't, then I guess you should not have paid $600. Really, this just smacks of consumeristic jealousy. No real story here. Move along.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-37040-100x100.png\")
What amazes me is that Apple fanboys (and I'm one of them), will defend Apple on just about anything. But if they dare...DARE *lower* their prices?! Man...
Apple should introduce an iDouche so all these fanboys can wash out their vaginas. :)
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-66943-100x100.png\")
Pfft. It's the price you pay when you MUST HAVE THE LATEST TECHNOLOGY NOW!!!!!! I have no pity.
That's it. I'm not even going to read articles about these whiners anymore.
The whiney self-important \"hey look at me I have an iPhone in the first week\" complainers have such a sense of entitlement.
Most products' prices drop over time. There's always someone who bought the product just before a price drop.
As someone else said in a different comment, you paid your money because you thought the product was worth it. Now that the price drops, suddenly the product has changed and become not worth it?!?! Bzzzzzt. Sorry. Thanks for playing.
Seriously. Just take a look at the language in this sob-story and you'll see the emotional attachment & obsession some people have to the products & companies... almost sounds like a marriage.
Words like \"faithful\", \"taken advantage of\", \"hurting\", \"offended\", \"lack of integrity\" (!!!!), and \"enchanted\".
These people are sick. Get OVER it.
You first-adopters are subsidizing the development of the next generation of products that will make fanboys gurgle with glee.
If that makes you feel stupid, used and sad, well get over it.
If your life is so pathetic and you are so self-absorbed that you think that a FOR-PROFIT company owes you ANYTHING for practicing good business tactics (at least in the short run....), you're a fool.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-49032-100x100.png\")
To everyone complaining that \"we understand they would drop the price eventually, but historically they've always waited 6-12 months for price drops\", I'd like to introduce you to a disclaimer used by every financial advisor, stockbroker, investment manager, etc etc:
Past performance is no guarantee of future results.
HA! Thanks for the laugh.
I like the \"sucker rebate\". You get $100 off of your iPhone but you still have to put it towards another Apple product. Apple still gets your money. I'm guessing most people won't get that though.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-83387-100x100.png\")
Why o why is this causing such consternation? Gadgets always go down in price. My 50\" TV was $1000 less six months later.
Plus, this is nothing. Try telling this mere $200 price drop as a sob story to someone who bought a Macintosh SE/30 for $3,000 the day before the $999 Mac Classic came out that was the same thing.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-45631-100x100.png\")
Yeah but now I can have an iPod shuffle AND an iPhone (or iPhone accesory) instead of just the iPhone.
Also, if I am not mistaken, you can use the rebate in the itunes store as well. So you could technically buy a bunch of songs and movies to load up that new iPhone you just got. ANd if it doesn't work in the itunes store then buy 100 bucks worth of itunes gift cards.
Or you could save the money and put it towards Leopard and pick up the new OS for 30 bucks.
Basically if you like Apple, then this is a good thing because you are inevitably going to buy something again from them and when you do...you will have an isntant 100 discount. Why is this such a bad thing?
For all the \"consumer service\" talk that is made around here, you'd think people would like to see a company like Apple do something like offer $100 apple store credit to those early adopters who have been talking up their WONDERFUL iPhones to all their friends for the past 2 months.
I know at least 2 people who bought an iPhone after playing around with mine.
For Apple to do something that \"hurts\" me as a consumer seems silly.
I applaud them for offering a $100 credit, and am SHOCKED that others don't feel that way.
@Echodork:
AT&T is the \"worst network\"? By what definition and whose criteria? It's always worked fine for me, not much better or worse than any of the others. Can't really say I've ever seen that much difference. And it's Apple, not AT&T, that didn't include 3G on the first iteration.
Lots of expensive phones are network locked, and lots of phones are more expensive once you factor in the more expensive plan.
I understand people wanting to unlock the iPhone to use overseas, but to use T-Mobile? blech. What difference does that make?
And at least I CAN use a GSM phone in those places, unlike any Verizon/Sprint CDMA America knows best B.S. phone.
So, please tell me... what's so wrong with AT&T, not compared to ideal, but compared to everyone else, and tell me, what's so expensive about the iPhone compared to anything else similar?
I got mine yesterday, after the drop for $299, or, $500 less than my unlocked 8525 was a year ago. (I have no use for the extra 4G.)
Anyway, Apple Fanbois are no more or less ridiculous than the knee jerk haters.
For some reason, this really brings to mind a parable, Matthew 20:1-16.
'These men who [bought the iPhone today only paid $399],' they said, 'and you have made them equal to us who [have paid $599].' But he answered one of them, 'Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn't you agree to [buy an iPhone for $599]? Take your [iPhone] and go. I want to give the man who [bought the iPhone today for $399] the same as I gave you. Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money?
\"For all the \"consumer service\" talk that is made around here, you'd think people would like to see a company like Apple do something like offer $100 apple store credit to those early adopters who have been talking up their WONDERFUL iPhones to all their friends for the past 2 months.\"
No, I'd like to see something done for the people that are legitimately screwed. People who don't realize that prices change are not being ripped off, they are stupid.
When has a price drop ever been bad? When it means that a bunch of assholes no longer get to feel exclusive about their overpriced phone.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-56483-100x100.png\")
I heard that over time prices drop on things and that if you buy something when it first comes out, it costs more. HOW DARE THEY!
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-132486-100x100.png\")
Dear Capitalism,
I've been buying tons of stuff for years. When I was a little kid, I pushed my parents to buy a shitload of stupid shit, and now, well into adulthood, I am still blowing money on your fine crap.
I was so disappointed to see that you lowered the price on that thing that used to cost more. Are you kidding me dudes!?!? I thought this was all about making me feel good about diarrhea-ing cash all over the place all the time. Now I get the feeling you're just trying to make money...
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-103133-100x100.png\")
Well at least he admits to being a 'fanboy', but he and the rest of the winners are owed nothing. If you are the idiot who spend 10k for an iPhone, release day, on eBay you are owed nothing. If you are one of the many fools who paid 3k for a PS3 on eBay, you are owed nothing. If you paid 1500 for a xbox360 on eBay, you are owed nothing.
I'm glad you fucks were charged more, because I'd rather see that price difference go to the manufacturer and not some filthy eBay scalper. Apple, just like those filthy eBay scalpers owe you nothing. When you paid, you agreed on the market price and all the bragging rights that came with it.
Apple, if one of your marketing execs read this, good job jackass. Price drops are done in incremental amounts, not by thirds. WTF were you guys thinking? Fire your whole staff, because even a 5year old would tell you that the least offensive way to change the price would be to phase out the 4GB and lower the 8GB to its price point. Your offering of a $100 coupon was a nice jester, but you guys should have stood firm. It makes you guys look guilty, and will probably insight another lawsuit.
@shades_of_blue: fuck, should be 'whiners', not 'winners'. Nothing like butter fingering the keyboard
@ptkdude: EXACTLY. Anyone with basic sound editing software can make free ringtones till their fingers bleed. So why exactly is it so great to do it in iTunes and pay extra for the privelege?
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-2041-100x100.png\")
$599 was overpriced to begin with, but he was too caught up in Apple's reality distortion field to realize that. Well, hey, at least a bit of that extra $200 flowed back to his bottom line as a shareholder.
I have no sympathy for anyone wanting a rebate.
No one told you to buy immediately; have some patience and consumer sense.
Dear M: Please have your big-money dad adopt me. I'll be the intelligent son he never had.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-39759-100x100.png\")
Quick! Somebody call the WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAmbulance!!!
@ COAN_NET
\"Prices of everything drops quickly. My $1000 Sony Alpha camera can be got for 1/2 that price now.\"
Do you mean for the body or the kit. The kit's I've been looking at at been 700+ for a new camera. Do you have good source?
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-4343-100x100.png\")
Shut up, you stupid twat.
Nobody forced you to buy this, and I'm sure you've been having much fun showing off your new toy for the past weeks.
Get over it, or die. Either way, the world will be a better place.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-153167-100x100.png\")
Hmmmm, I think all of these negative comments all sound like the same thing:
I hate people who have money, but don't like to get ripped off.
$600 was a fair price and is a fair price for me. I'm just happier with the extra $100 that I would have spent at an Apple Store anyways.
@storm: The Mac Classic was a 68000 processor running at 8MHz, the same processor as in the original Macintosh that had come out SIX YEARS BEFORE. The Mac Classic was a genuine POS.
The SE/30 was a 16 MHz 68030 that could be expanded to a whopping 128MB of RAM. It was powerful enough to use as a file/print or even a web server. The SE/30 kicked ass.
You spent a lot more for an SE/30 and you got a lot more.
/former apple fanboy
//still has an original Macintosh, a QuickTake camera, and assorted swag.
@str1cken: Plus with iTunes you can't hear Bobby Hill screaming \"THAT'S MY PURSE!\" when you get a text message :-)
I wonder how many more months of smugly flashing their iPhones around that the fanboys and early purchasers needed before they felt the price could be dropped into the range where plebs could afford one. Honestly, if someone has been a follower of Apple for a long time and didn't see this coming from miles away, then he has more money than brains.
This was incredibly predictable. Apple always abuses the unconditional love of their loyal fans and they will continue to do so until they've all grown disenchanted enough to hold Apple to the same standards of value as any other company. Fortunately for Apple, love dies hard and slowly.
wahhhhh.... I paid $600 for your phone so that I could be elite, and special and have something that most people couldn't have. Now only 2 months later you've dropped the price enough that I'm no longer that special or unique. Come on man, I was hoping people would stop ridiculing long enough about paying $600 for a phone that they'd think I was cool.
I'm surprised that anyone would actually think that a price drop should be done with the consideration of the consumer's feelings. It's no surprised that Apple is playing on a new product life-cycle with the iPhone. Just wait and see how they introduce the next generation of iPhone much faster than new iPods have been getting churned out. I wouldn't doubt that Apple has also dramatically decreased the cost of producing the phone much faster than normal as well.
Amazing how adding \"i\" can make anything sound neat. Having my iCoffee in my iCup.....
This is what happens when you buy into the bleeding edge. You experience launch issues, and showing all your friends that fancy new gadget comes at a higher price. You should know this by now, early adopters pay out the nose.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-46889-100x100.png\")
@ ICRUISE -
Your quote: \"I and most iPhone buyers did not realize that we were essentially paying a $200 fee for the privilege of having an iPhone for one or two months before the rest of the country.\"
Why did you buy it then? I paid $500+ for my HTC 8525 do you see me crying to HTC about a price drop, No. Sweet Baay Jesus price cuts happen.
How the hell did you justify to yourself buying the iPhone when it first came out? Maybe because...
\"I and most iPhone buyers DID realize that we were essentially paying a $200 fee for the privilege of having an iPhone for one or two months before the rest of the country.\"
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-53901-100x100.png\")
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-79903-100x100.png\")
One word for him:
SUCKER!