Journalist seeks reaction to iPhone price drop

[watha2020]

We'd like reactions to the price drop. Does it make you more likely to buy an iPhone? If you already paid the higher price for the iPhone, do you feel cheated? I'd like to include your name, age, occupation and the community where you live.

Interested? Please contact me ASAP. Thanks.

Hiawatha Bray
Technology Reporter
Boston Globe
135 Morrissey Blvd.
P.O. Box 55819
Boston, MA 02205-5819 USA
617-929-3119 voice
617-929-3183 fax
bray@globe.com
Recent writings: www.boston.com/businesss/technology/bray

 

[gcvt]

I bought my phone on iDay for $600. I don't care that the price dropped....happens all the time with consumer electronics. I'm still enjoying my iPhone just as much as I was yesterday.

As you can see in my info to the left and in my sig, I'm in San Francisco and my name is Greg. Im 38.

 

[becomingwater]

I know the price drop sucks for a lot of consumers, but it will bring more iPhones to customers! Faster updates and a better community for iPhone users. I have the 4G iPhone and will soon get the 8G version.
Chris
Destin, FL
34

USAF

 

[Romanesq]

Apple's businesss decision

Since I've enjoyed the iPhone from the weekend of its launch, I have no issue with Apple's cut. It will add to the support and software updates through its life and that means a lot more to me.

It's up to Apple to price its products according to consumer demand, not me.

I'm sure they know what their doing in that regard.

 

[skinsgamer]

I bought my iPhone from Apple.com about 3 weeks ago, the product is amazing. I understand that price drops are part of the businesss but I am shocked. A price drop this large in this short amount of time is unprecedented.

 

[jbaraga]

I don't have anything to contribute re: the price drop (OK...I think it's too much, too soon), but I gotta say, Hiawatha Bray is definitely one of the coolest names I've heard in a long time.

 

[Velodog2]

Well, I wouldn't mind that I paid 600 for this amazing piece of technology 6 weeks ago, IF it did the things it said it would do without significant bugs/performance issues/crashes, OR if Apple had actually made fixing those things a priority, OR if they had made an attempt to add features that were glaringly missing instead of adding features that only made them more money.

Instead of making a phone that cost 600 worth 600 by fixing it's problems, they've simply marked it down to closer to its actual value. Not an optimum, world-class solution IMO.

 

[rittchard]

I find the whole thing rather distasteful and a slap in the face to the dedicated fanbase that helped make the iPhone a big success story only 2 months ago. Not to mention putting up with all the bugs and missing features and still spinning it positively to naysayers. I particularly found it completely lacking any class for Steve Jobs to talk about how much buyers loved their iPhones and the incredible positive feedback we've provided - and then turn right around and tell all those people that they had overpaid by $200 (a third of the price!). As a 38 year old heavy consumer of electronics, I have never felt this kind of disrespect or seen any consumer device price cut play out this way. Frankly it's disgusting.

Do I expect price drops on new tech as an early adopter? Of course I do. Has it ever happened by this much and this quickly (yet slow enough that I couldn't get a refund)? Hell no. At the bare minimum, Apple could have extended some sort of good faith gesture to current iPhone owners, such as a $50 iTunes gift card. At this point I'd even settle for an apology or acknowledgment to restore some good will.

 

[slingshot110]

I find the whole thing rather distasteful and a slap in the face to the dedicated fanbase that helped make the iPhone a big success story only 2 months ago. Not to mention putting up with all the bugs and missing features and still spinning it positively to naysayers. I particularly found it completely lacking any class for Steve Jobs to talk about how much buyers loved their iPhones and the incredible positive feedback we've provided - and then turn right around and tell all those people that they had overpaid by $200 (a third of the price!). As a 38 year old heavy consumer of electronics, I have never felt this kind of disrespect or seen any consumer device price cut play out this way. Frankly it's disgusting.

Do I expect price drops on new tech as an early adopter? Of course I do. Has it ever happened by this much and this quickly (yet slow enough that I couldn't get a refund)? Hell no. At the bare minimum, Apple could have extended some sort of good faith gesture to current iPhone owners, such as a $50 iTunes gift card. At this point I'd even settle for an apology or acknowledgment to restore some good will.

I could not have said it better myself - that is why I'm quoting rittchard

 

[WickedZ]

Here is my take on the iPhone price drop…

It is perfectly normal in a product lifecycle to drop the price as the sales volume, and demand lower. This is especially true with cell phones. I feel that this price drop is not among that normal lifecycle. By dropping the price so early in the product lifecycle, it’s just showing consumers how overpriced the phone was to begin with. As an early adopter I feel punished for being first out the gate on the product, and feel cheated for giving Apple my feedback on features I enjoyed, and missed. In good faith Apple should give credit to those who purchased prior to the drop. The credit can be in cash, or maybe even 200$ of credit in the iTunes store (where they will at least recoup some of the credit in profit).

If Apple can afford to drop the price 33% within the first few months of the product release, it means that they gouged the consumer. To me this is illegal, but if not illegal, at the very least unethical. Why will I ever trust to purchase an Apple product again? I bent over backwards to support their iPhone, because I thought it was innovative and had a lot of potential. I talked my company into switching my plan from Verizon where we had a corporate discount, to AT&T where there was no businesss plan available for the phone. I lived through the headaches of the first month of bug fixes where the phone continually crashed, had battery issues, and was almost a beta product. The thanks I get is Apple sticking up their middle finger and yelling “Sucker…”. They should really make it right with those that were early adopters of what was already guaranteed to be a “test phase” of a release.

Apple has touted itself as a company that makes products “for the people”… I’ve always been reluctant to switch to Apple products, I have always refused to buy into their PC market, and I stayed away from the ipod products for the first few years. I felt they had finally got to a point where they were offering innovative, useful, and completely new products to the market, I switched from iriver products to the ipod early last year. The iPhone was a natural progression, ditching my Motorola Q (windows mobile) phone, and my Verizon service (superior data btw). I was perfectly content with the iPhone, happy to have it, anxious to use it everyday, and glad to hear about how easily updates would be rolled out. Today’s news made me want to take it back, go back to my trusty Q where there were no “surprises” or misinformation. Unfortunately now I’m stuck in a 2 year contract with AT&T, and with 600$... excuse me 399$ worth of hardware that I paid 600$ for.

Nicolas Young, IT/IS Director
Los Angeles, CA
Age: 26

 

[volcomguysd]

I wouldn't feel "cheated" if they just added some features that the majority of iPhone owners have been asking for such as copy/paste, MMS messaging, etc.

I agree with everyone's take that the price drop is a little too much, too fast. But I can't lie. If Steve Jobs came up to me on June 29th and said to wait until Sept. 5th to buy and get it for $399, I would have kept walking into the Apple store and proudly handed them my $599. So can I really complain?

I'm not holding my breathe for any restitution, but would think that any restitution would be fair. I'd settle for some statement from Steve acknowledging the fact that he's sorry to the "iDay" purchasers such as myself. But I can understand economics....Supply vs. Demand......with the holiday season looming.

But why is everyone suggesting iTunes Store giftcards as restitution? Yeah that would be an easy thing for them to do, but most of us have workarounds to get music and other things from other sources. Why not ask for something more materialistic? iPhone cases or heck even an iPod Nano?

Overall, if they just dedicated more time/money to the 10 most requested features/additions and actually gave them to us, I would be a happy camper.

Ben
27
San Diego, CA

----------------------
iPhone 8GB
Macbook
iPod

 

[iPhone-Planet]

I would love to know why such good news from Apple results in a bigtime drop in the Apple stock price? I say it is good news, because they would not being making all these changes to their product line, if they did not feel it would result in more sales and many more happy customers who most likely will purchase other Apple products, which is always the goal anyway.
So now we have more people able to buy the phone, more people will be wanting the new iPods and just lke the gaming industry where they come out with the same game each year, but a little better and ramped up a bit.
So what's not to love about this as far as investors are concerned?

 

[iGal]

We'd like reactions to the price drop. Does it make you more likely to buy an iPhone? If you already paid the higher price for the iPhone, do you feel cheated? I'd like to include your name, age, occupation and the community where you live.

Not including my name on here, but my age is 22, I work in the film/tv industry and live in Studio City, CA.

I bought my iPhone on 7/7/07 for $600 plus tax. I don't feel cheated, just disappointed. They make it very obvious that the higher price was unnecessary, just profit padding (not that anyone doubted that before, this is just a little bit "HA! We got you!").

We all expected a price drop, just not so soon. This is a bit of a slap in the face to those of us who supported Apple enough to buy early.

 

[nsbalt]

Am upset with Apple

As a few of you already stated, I also am not surprised at a price drop - - but only 2 months after launch does make me grind my teeth with some anger. I can accept a 6 month timeline for a price drop much more easier. After all, it’s us early adopters that help to identify the bugs and extend the marketing arm of Apple. I do feel cheated out of $200. It is a slap in the face to the dedicated loyal Apple customers to drop the price after 2 months

I honesty feel that those who did make the purchase should get something to soften the $200 2 month price drop. But I know that will never happen.
I am happy with my iPhone, but competely unhappy with the International data charges/ plans . My iPhone is home as I am writing this from Europe during my 3 week trip — which really sucks.

 

[ahaxton]

I have emailed you. I am glad Journalists are getting right on this. It's lunacy for Apple to do what they have done. Everyone who purchased at the original retail price should be mad and demand reparations!


Apple won't keep its status symbol like reputation if they start on this track.

 

[greenjbhsd]

I am not surprised by the price drop, just the timing of it. The phone had been on the market for 2 months and saw a dramatic drop. I expected to see this about the end of November in time for the Christmas rush. To me it feels like a kick in the nads, but truth be told, I would have shelled out the coin up front anyway as I tend to be an early adopter.

The issue that really exists for me is that it is a feeling that there is too much a concern to make money and not bring the unit in line with what seems to be the expectation of the consumer and even the reviewer (not limited to the forums, reading reviews from USA Today, CNN, PCworld, etc). Rather then get things to where they should be they are developing the price structure around the next way to extract $$ from the owners. Anyway, that is my 2cents and my peace in all of it. At least my wife will get a new shuffle that has a color she likes.

James
34
Salt Lake City
Quality Engineer

 

[SiskoKid]

I feel completely cheated. This whole thing is completely unprecedented. I waited in line for 14 hours, taking off of work (I work hourly!), and I saved up for months so I could get myself and my partner an iPhone. That $400 would've gone a long way for me, but I've been a loyal Apple fan for years.

It was a horrible thing to do to us. Since when did $600 products go down 33% in less than 2 months after selling the most compared to other PDAs in the prior month? Manufacturing parts do not go down so quickly, so they KNEW they were ripping us off and lowered the price in time for people to get excited for Xmas shopping which is gonna kick off very soon. Even Steve Jobs mentioned stockings!

I'm so angry and betrayed. Someone suggested we just all pirate Leopard to make up for some of that cost. Who knows. What I DO know is that I don't trust Apple anymore. I thought they were a progressive company with some morals, but they're actually not. It's too bad. But I know what NOT to buy at launches: Apple Products.

 

[iPhone-Planet]

iGal,
I wouldn't say that there were very many predicting a price drop. There were many knowledgeable Apple watchers and fans here who mentioned that Apple never drops prices, especially shortly after launch.

If they did away with the 4GB iPhone, it surely was not wanted or selling much at all.

 

[ahaxton]

I feel completely cheated. This whole thing is completely unprecedented. I waited in line for 14 hours, taking off of work (I work hourly!), and I saved up for months so I could get myself and my partner an iPhone. That $400 would've gone a long way for me, but I've been a loyal Apple fan for years.

It was a horrible thing to do to us. Since when did $600 products go down 33% in less than 2 months after selling the most compared to other PDAs in the prior month? Manufacturing parts do not go down so quickly, so they KNEW they were ripping us off and lowered the price in time for people to get excited for Xmas shopping which is gonna kick off very soon. Even Steve Jobs mentioned stockings!

I'm so angry and betrayed. Someone suggested we just all pirate Leopard to make up for some of that cost. Who knows. What I DO know is that I don't trust Apple anymore. I thought they were a progressive company with some morals, but they're actually not. It's too bad. But I know what NOT to buy at launches: Apple Products.

Pirating Leopard is a good idea if Apple does not come up with reparations for us early adopters.

 

[chrisbone123]

the i phone was my first Apple product i bought, it was great and i did get what i paid for,

but obviously Apple is now telling me that i was to anxiuous and have over paid for one of their products that they over priced on purpose, just to get my money.

so its now left up to me to assume that this is their normal businesss practices.

now this is what i call the start of a beautiful relationship... ( sarcasm).

Now im not whinning, ive had pleanty of phones ( sidekicks 1,2,3, treo 650, 700p etc.), i never experienced anything like this, not this dramatic, not this substantial.

for now i will not buy any Apple products when they come out for at least 2 months, and i encourage all others who are upset about this to take action, don't just type your opinion