So, you waited in line for 48 hours so you could spend $600.00 to be the first on your block to buy an Apple iPhone.
Now your uncle Bob can buy one for $200.00 less and you feel, well, jobbed… and you think people should feel sorry for you?
I can understand waiting in line for concert tickets to see Megadeth or maybe waiting in line to view the Mona Lisa but…
Camping out for an overpriced consumer device that every tech blogger who’s covered the business for more than five minutes had been saying for months would be discounted almost immediately post-launch?
There’s a sucker born every minute and I’m sorry to say you’re one of them.
Don’t get the idea that just because Steve Jobs posted a pseudo-apology on the Apple Web site and is offering another $100 so you can buy more cool overpriced stuff from your local Apple store, that he feels bad.
Read the Jobs letter again. Here’s what it says:
1. I was right: “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.”
2. You got robbed. Get over it: “This is life in the technology lane.”
3. OK, if you’re really THAT mad, I’m kinda sorry you feel that way: “We apologize for disappointing some of you, and we are doing our best to live up to your high expectations of Apple.”
There have been a lot of Apple fanboys venting online the past 24 hours basically repeating some version of:
I’ve learned to never buy an Apple product again as soon as it rolls off the line, if I ever buy one again period.
How much you want to bet there’s lines outside Apple stores for the next hot device that Jobs and his designers dream up?
- Steve Jobs Offers Early iPhone Adopters $100 Credit | September 6, 2007
- Jobs Upsetting Apple iPhone Owners: Tough Luck | September 6, 2007
- Apple iPhone Battery Life Details Emerge | June 18, 2007
- Cutting iPhone Price By 33% Equals 300% Jump In Sales | September 11, 2007
- Vodafone And Orange Fight For The iPhone | May 5, 2007
When selling merchandise it is always hard to find a price cutting point.
Maybe a less drastic price cut at first and another before the holidays.
Perhaps a little less rubbing their nose in it, would have been less stinging to early buyers
Of course, there will be lines outside Apple stores - everyone wants to be the coolest kid on the block and have all of the new toys as soon as they come out!
Lots of early-adopters talked about how popular they were because they had an iPhone - and I’d bet money that a lot of them were just melting into little puddles at the thought of being able to have something no one else had!
Imagine the fortitude that it took to wait in line for 24 hours to buy an iPhone! Astounding!
Maybe this’ll teach the Apple fanboys…
Seriously though, if he just gave everyone $100 cash, that would be one thing. Giving them a bit of Apple Store credit that’ll barely chip into the profit they make on most of their products, that’s another thing entirely.