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8GB iPhone Price Drop, 4GB iPhone Discontinued

I bought on day 1, and was a bit pissed when I heard the announcement. I went ahead and called AMEX to use my Platinum Price Guarantee benefit to recover the $200, and they told me that the program was discontinued in Oct 2006. They gave me the $200 credit anyways, as a courtesy.

I am no longer pissed. :)
 
zioxide said:
WELCOME TO CAPITALISM.

They can charge whatever the **** they want, drop the price whenver the **** they want. That's how our economy works. **** comes out, and then the price drops.
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I think you missed the point of my statement. Read the last sentence of what I wrote, at least.
 
CWallace said:
Apple doesn't release a computer and then, 60 days later, cut it's price. Nor do they release a new model of that computer with significantly better specs 60 days after the initial release.
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Actually they have. Most recently the G5 iMac was updated and then replace only a few months later by the Intel version.

I paid $600 both because I felt the iPhone was worth it
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So what's your problem? You wanted the iPhone more than you wanted to keep $600, and you still have your iPhone. The only reason to be mad at the price cuts is envy of other people who can now pay less than you did, and envy is not an admirable quality.

One reason I like Apple is the sense of "stability" their hardware line gives. I knew yesterday my brand new iMac 24" that I bought on Day One would not be upstaged or made cheaper in the next six to twelve months so I bought it now rather then waited.
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You like Apple because they're slow to update their products? Odd, that's one of my major complaints about them. Look, any tech product you buy is going to be substantially devalued in a year or less as better and/or cheaper versions come out. Whether it happens in one or two big bursts like Apple typically does, or gradually as is usually the case in the PC world really doesn't matter.
 
It has been said and will continue to be said for a long time. Srew you apple. Screw you nice and hard. Realistically, I new I was going to pay some kind of an "early adopter tax" I figured the price would drop $50...maybe $100 in the following 6 months after launch and I was ok with that. What I'm not ok with is a $200 price drop TWO MONTHS after I bought it. Even though Steve and company think this was a fantastic move financially speaking, it is going to royally piss of everybody who bought an iPhone in the past two months. That's what? Hundreds of thousands of LOYAL fans and customers. Until something is done to make me happy (some kind of restitution...like a little gift card or free AppleCare, etc.) I will not give one cent to Apple at all. And if nothing's done, I'm not going to pay for Leopard.
 
Starfall said:
Don't count me in that group.

I bought an 8GB iPhone on June 29th. I pay ~65$/month for monthly service with the standard 2 year contract. That comes out to be about $2200 over the two years of the contract. And if I had waited until today to buy, I'd be paying $2000 over those same two years. That's less than a 10% drop in price, because the cost of the iPhone itself is dwarfed by the monthly service charges. Now, if that $200 difference over two years is such a huge deal to you, perhaps because it's all up front cost, you probably bought a phone that you couldn't really afford.

Don't assume that's true of everyone who bought before today.
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$200 is a whole lot different spread across two years than it is spread across TWO MONTHS.

It's $50 a week, based on the current release/price drop. And just under $2 a week based on your calculations. That's a pretty huge difference.
 
A quote from that old sage Warren Buffett. " It takes 20 years to build a reputation, and 5 minutes to ruin it". Wise advice to follow Apple.
 
jpgodlew said:
It has been said and will continue to be said for a long time. Srew you apple. Screw you nice and hard. Realistically, I new I was going to pay some kind of an "early adopter tax" I figured the price would drop $50...maybe $100 in the following 6 months after launch and I was ok with that. What I'm not ok with is a $200 price drop TWO MONTHS after I bought it. Even though Steve and company think this was a fantastic move financially speaking, it is going to royally piss of everybody who bought an iPhone in the past two months. That's what? Hundreds of thousands of LOYAL fans and customers. Until something is done to make me happy (some kind of restitution...like a little gift card or free AppleCare, etc.) I will not give one cent to Apple at all. And if nothing's done, I'm not going to pay for Leopard.
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The problem is, they've already given away compensation to some people today and it was very inconsistent in a lot of places. I'm not sure they could even track what they've done. So if they came out with a blanket policy for all iPhone owners, how would they know who to exclude?

My guess is they were COMPLETELY overwhelmed with the feedback they received. However I think some might expect it. Funny, I would often explain why the iPhone was worth $600, but apparently I was wrong- Apple discovered it was only worth $400, and the critics were right. Only the loyal fan base was wrong. I mean, they didn't lower the price out of the goodness of their hearts. They realized the price point was too high.

I really debated buying the thing and even had a touch of buyers remorse, the way you often do after spending a lot of money even if you're happy with the product. Should have listened to my gut instinct. Next time.
 
lord patton said:
they offered a $200 Apple Store credit when they dropped the price of Aperture from $500 to $300.

I bet they do the same now. Although, it will cost them about 200 million dollars.
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not sure if this has been re-posted yet? But from the 3rd quarter call:

Ben Reitzes - UBS

Peter, with regard to guidance, you just guided $0.66 and came up with $0.92. Why should we believe that this is $0.65 this time when you have been so conservative? Are you really that worried about the component costs, or is there something else going on with regard to an upcoming price cut for a product?
Peter Oppenheimer

Ben, we gave you guidance that we have reasonable confidence in achieving. Regarding the gross margin, I have guided it down to 29.5% as a result primarily of three factors. We’re going to run the back-to-school promotion for most of the quarter, a great promotion for the company and brings us each year many new customers, but it is an expensive one. We do expect to see higher commodity costs and I will let Tim comment on that in a moment; and we have some product transitions that I can’t get into.
 
you clowns

Ok so the phone is cheaper we al know that and for that has apple clowned us ?? no for 400 bucks you have a device that is far superior to any other device on the market . so for a hundred bucks I ahve enjoyed mine about two months longer. Great product and a great company . Cant wait to see what is ahead and I am 54 year old geek .

andy
 
5th Ave Store NYC

Called the 5th Ave store. They said they are not refunding purchases made before 14 days ago.
 
5th Ave Apple Store NYC

Tomorrow I am going to hound the store manager. I encourage anyone else who bought from the 5th Ave store to join me.
 
What to say?

My intial reaction was anger like so many other people, not just for the price drop, but as many of others have stated -- the time of the price drop. Jobs konws he has a general fan base, and the ultra-loyal fan base, and it seems so uncharacteristic for him to make a drastic price cut to enrage them, fair or not.

Anyway, I am over my initial anger now and realize that I was thrilled to get a new iPhone for myself and the wife, and we've loved them so far for two months. I do not think Apple will credit anybody $200, but I would think that they would want to appease their ultra-loyal fanbase in some way (whether or not it is unfair, if we all perceive it to be unfair, it was a poor business decision).

What I think would be fair would be for Apple to offer anybody who previously bought the $599 iPhone either some type of iTunes gift card (would cost them a mere fraction of that $200) or, better yet, give us a $200 credit toward the purchase of any new Mac computer during the next 6 months. This would be win-win, as they would appease their ultra-loyal fan base, and they would give us a large incentive to buy a new Mac (for which most of us would not need much incentive). Apple would essentially lose minimal money on that good-will offer.

I for one would be thrilled with that, as I am seriously thinking of buying the new iMac.
 
I think Apple should do nothing.

If there was a shortage of flash memory and they had to raise the price $200 and asked you to come back and pay the difference would any of you?

Didn't think so. If you wouldn't you are a hypocrite.

Business is business. They have made their initial profit from early adopters and covered production costs. They now have lowered production costs because of volume, contracts with distributors guarnteeing buying a certain amount and now want to increase sales volume to make more profit. When we(the people who will buy them at $400) hit our sales peak, they will drop the price again. It could be a week, it could be a year.
 
Johnner1999 said:
not sure if this has been re-posted yet? But from the 3rd quarter call:

Ben Reitzes - UBS

Peter, with regard to guidance, you just guided $0.66 and came up with $0.92. Why should we believe that this is $0.65 this time when you have been so conservative? Are you really that worried about the component costs, or is there something else going on with regard to an upcoming price cut for a product?
Peter Oppenheimer

Ben, we gave you guidance that we have reasonable confidence in achieving. Regarding the gross margin, I have guided it down to 29.5% as a result primarily of three factors. We’re going to run the back-to-school promotion for most of the quarter, a great promotion for the company and brings us each year many new customers, but it is an expensive one. We do expect to see higher commodity costs and I will let Tim comment on that in a moment; and we have some product transitions that I can’t get into.
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I thought of the exact thing when I got my refund and how many have sold. Just depends on the rumor of a rebate. If so, wow. Assume, what, 500,000 sold? 1/2 turn it in (both conservative estimates) So thats 50 million.
 
How silly it is for people to think they should get a rebate for buying something on launch day. First, as fan boys and girls you should know that there are price drops soon after the launch of any Apple product. That happened with the PowerBooks, Aperture, etc. You assume a certain level of risk buying something new on launch day. Bugs, pricing adjustments, etc.
Buck up and try to get your $200 rebate but if you do not what have you really lost? You paid what you paid...
 
Ok, here is my resolution:

Bought an 8G on 8-17-2007 (19 days ago) from AT&T Store

Called 611, they couldn't do anything, told me to go to the retail store.

Called retail store, and was told AT&T retail stores are being advised to stick to the 14-day policy (strike 2)

Looked up my bank card info, and found success! I have Washington Mutual, and I purchased the phone with my Gold Master Card debit card (not a credit card, the ATM with a Master Card logo). Washington Mutual offers Price Protection Guarantee for this card. I called 1-800-mc-assist, and filed a claim. If you purchased the item within the last 60 days, you are good to go.

For those that paid with any type of card, I would try that route if you get no where the other ways.

Clifs:

AT&T said no refund, WAMU check card will cover under price protection
 
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