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iPhone price cut: Official response from Steve Jobs

irun5k said:
Lots of things can affect profit- not just $100 gift cards. Lowering the price of the phone $200 would affect profit, for example, if they decided to do such a crazy and radical price reduction (yeah right) :D
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The transition from one OS version to another always slows sales just before release, then accelerates after release. Remember that Leopard will be in next quarters profits and the sales slow down in this quarters. The new iMac's which are selling very well might blunt this effect but it would be impossible to eliminate a transitional profit drop. How many people are waiting for Leopard before ordering their new Mac's when it is just a month and change away.
 
Wow, Bill are you listening?

This is amazing,

It really shows the kind of company apple is. I believe I will buy the Ipod Touch, or the iPhone just for this.

What different companies are MS and Apple? MS charge in excess for everything,

long live Jobs !
 
technicolor said:
I suspect its unhappy people. They really wanted Apple to stick it to the early adopters for some reason they seem to get a great satisfaction from watching it all go down. I was more than prepared to live with my purchase at full price. Thankfully now I dont have to. Its great watching them eat crow, especially those that were on their high horses yesterday going out of their way to make people miserable.:D
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Agreed. I was very disappointed in the attitude and comments some people posted. They actually went out of their way to read a thread that apparently annoyed them, and further added insult to injury by taking the time to post unnecessary comments. If they truly didn't appreciate the legitimate complaints of iPhone owners, then move on. Sadly, this wasn't the case.

Personally, as an iPhone owner who made their purchase on the day of release (admittedly I had buyers remorse as I swore I wouldn't purchase the first version), I am satisfied that Apple has acknowledged the many owners who bought the phone and helped to make it a success. Kudos to Apple and Mr. Jobs.
 
wow.. thats great news, i didnt expect that coming..
looks like ill be getting the new nano for 49 bucks more..

:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:
 
JGowan said:
Holy Crap! He read hundreds of emails?! This is why, people, that we love Apple. They actually care and listen to their customers.
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Yeah, this part jumped out at me too. Did he really read every one of those hundreds of emails? Man, I get like 10 emails an hour at work and I feel overwhelmed and start skimming. And he's reading hundreds of emails about people complaining about the same stuff for 24 hours?
Sounds like an exaggeration Mr. Jobs. If not, kudos to you!
 
DesignerOnMac said:
We had hardware and software training twice a year before all the new stuff was to be sold. Met a lot of company people. I hate to burst your bubble on the thought that Apple has margins of 25-50%, but they simply do not!

And most retail stores have margins of 10% or less on a given product!
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Oh dream on brother! Retail Margins are at least 100% over product cost. 10% wouldn't even cover the light bill. The only stores operating on slim margins are Grocery Stores. So in effect, as thanks for you $200, Good ol Steve is only theoretically taking a hit for $50 AND is making you spend it on him. Likely you'll overspend so it will be a zero net hit, maybe even a net gain for Good ol Steve. Heck he should do this every time he lowers prices!
 
I'm cool with this. I'd rather have been able to simply buy the iPhone for $399, but hey, this is a good gesture.
 
Great job Apple, you thanked your loyal followers and the fresh converts like me, you did the right thing. Now for all the folks who said this was normal, I would like to see the data on a 33% price cut in 68 days on electronics, this cut was unprecedented.
 
gaelan said:
as an stock holder, this is disappointing.

also, giving in to such misdirected demands fueled by emotions of entitlement, makes me wonder exactly how spoiled his kids are...
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Well, spoiled kids aside.... You should have been more disappointed in the tanking of the stock over the announcement in the first place.
 
This is done purely from a standpoint of customer relations. Personally I think its sad that people act like this. All this does is show what a fool you are for buying an item coming out and then whining about the price drops shortly after. Should I complain everytime they update the Macbook Pro and makes mine worth less money? When you bought the phone you agreed that was a fair price because you bought it. You are why people hate Apple and their users. Maybe it takes that $200 extra dollars right now from everybody to help make the iPhone cheaper and better in the long run. Everyone who wrote in saying they OWE you $200 and complaining aught to be ashamed. You AGREED to pay that when you bought it! Nobody held a gun to your head. It was your choice. :(
 
You don't get it...do you?

jackc said:
Hopefully this will end the whining and the opposition to price decreases. Now you only had to pay $100 to be the coolest kid on the block for a while.
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I can't speak for all early adopters but for me being on the bleeding edge of technology is not about being "the coolest kid on the block." How condenscending of a remark. For me the iPhone leap was the same one I took with the 128K Mac, the first Ti-Book, versions 1 & 2 iMacs, Dual G5's first Laserwriter ($6,995--see I am willing to put my money where my mouth is) and first gens of iPod, iShuffle, and iNano. I purchased these items as soon as they became available because I could see how they would enhance my life. Sure I enjoy talking about my latest gadget if someone asks, but that would be the least of the driving forces for my early adoption.

I think that Apple's response is a sound business decision to preserve goodwill among some of their strongest advocates. Today's Apple is the company that I expected to show up on Wednesday at the iPod rollout. What a difference a day makes.
 
Thanks! Microsoft, Time to do the right thing!

Thank you to Apple. I was frustrated, and just assumed I wouldn't see my $200 ever again. But, he is right, this is technology, and business.

But other businesses should take note...

Mainly Microsoft who should give a credit of $249 to the 100 or so people who got suckered into buying a ZUNE.

As for me, I am thinking a new iPod, or waiting for Leopard.

I have, I will, love Apple.
 
This is reasonable...

I expected Apple to reduce the iPhone to 499 for the holidays, but I didn't expect them to drop the iPhone so soon and 200...

I lot of people were call us early adapters as complainers, but this price drop of 33% was unprecedented and especially on a product that is so popular.

I am content with the 100 store credit. It lets us know that Apple is listening...:eek:
 
~Shard~ said:
This is a brilliant move by Steve Jobs. Let the babies have their bottle.

Not only does he appease a lot of the whiners and complainers through this act, but he has effectively tricked them into spending even more money on Apple products! Yes, they have a $100 credit now, but how many people are going to use their Apple Store credit for a purchase equaling exactly $100? I’m betting many customers will put it towards a larger purchase, meaning they are still shelling out even more of their own cash as a result.

They paid an extra $200 for their iPhones, now they'll spend some extra cash in the Apple Store too! Makes sense though – they complain about a price drop, so logically they should be happy about the prospect of spending more money with Apple, the company they were cursing yesterday. :p :cool:
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Not to mention that $100 does really cost Apple $100. Have to give credit to the man for milking the minions.
 
I had faith.

I have a feeling that this is also one of the best marketing moves EVER. This was planned all to make Apple look that much cooler.

And they are!!!:)
 
I am still very disappointed by him. He should have done this even without the 'customer outrage.'

I want a new keyboard and a couple of other things... but, because I believe Apple screwed earlier adopters even now after this $100, I won't buy them from Apple. I am going to go with Logitech. Also, the $100 gift card for my niece for her birthday in 9 days won't be an Apple Gift Card like I had planned.
 
tkidBOSTON said:
Yeah, this part jumped out at me too. Did he really read every one of those hundreds of emails? Man, I get like 10 emails an hour at work and I feel overwhelmed and start skimming. And he's reading hundreds of emails about people complaining about the same stuff for 24 hours?
Sounds like an exaggeration Mr. Jobs. If not, kudos to you!
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i don't know who reads the emails but from my experience they certainly get acted on quickly. i was having a lot of problems with a number of separate apple products and felt that i was having to contact many many separate people ....so i thought i would centralise my problems in one email. and i sent it to steve (as i felt so frustrated). this was on a saturday. i received a reply the next day (sunday) asking when would be a convenient time to go through my difficulties. i was really impressed with that.

i do feel like a bit of an idiot for writing to the ceo for this sort of thing though.
 
Black Belt said:
Oh dream on brother! Retail Margins are at least 100% over product cost. 10% wouldn't even cover the light bill. The only stores operating on slim margins are Grocery Stores. So in effect, as thanks for you $200, Good ol Steve is only theoretically taking a hit for $50 AND is making you spend it on him. Likely you'll overspend so it will be a zero net hit, maybe even a net gain for Good ol Steve. Heck he should do this every time he lowers prices!
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Huge difference between gross margins and operating margins. Every product is priced atleast 100% over it's "wholesale" price (the price it costs to company to obtain it). That does not include operationg costs such as labor, buildings, admin, marketing, logistics, utilities....ect. So, in the end the actual profit margin on the product after taxes is usually around 10%.
 
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