Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

iPhone price cut: Official response from Steve Jobs

The whole thing has ensured the iPhone has stayed in the spot light pretty much non-stop. Next thing is the move to the EU which will continue to keep it in the spot light.

Maybe I'm too cynical and you're too naive. Maybe they're not as scheming as I imagine, but I'm certain all of this isn't a complete accident.
 
surferfromuk said:
Ok I'll be naive if you will at least confirm this is something along the lines of what your suggesting went down in the board meeting 6 months ago ;

SJ: "Let's overcharge for the product when we release it - people will buy it anyway. then in 2 months we'll drop the price by $200 and give the early adopters $100 vouchers back when they complain!"
Board to SJ : "and what exactly will that accomplish?"
SJ: "We'll look so generous when we give them the $100 credit to buy more of our stuff."
Board: "Great Plan Steve. ..."
Click to expand...

probably a little more like this ^
 
What worried me is how Steve Jobs actually thought people would be okay with being screwed over. Did he really expect people to be like "Yay! Thanks for Screwing the loyal fans over, Apple!"?
:rolleyes:
 
It's interesting that this degree of integrity has been shown for customers of the iPhone, which is not exclusively a mac-centric product.

I remember when OSX came out and the uproar over 10.2 not being a free upgrade considering the tosh we'd paid for already.

No such luck.

I guess that Apple is fonder of their new customers rather than their established captive audience.

And talking about EU - let's hope their prices are fair when they enter the UK market. Us Brits have been mugged off for years.

But, "Way to go, Steve"
 
so basically .. first Apple sold you an overpriced gadget, then screwed you over, and now you are forced to spend another at least $100 for and Apple product that you probably wouldn't have bought had your $100 note been in your pocket than in Apple's bank account.

you lose $100
Apple lose .. nothing .. infact they sold you another product and if it is even a dollar over $100 they even made some more profit off you! .. brilliant!!

if you have an iPhone and you ignore all this .. good for you!
 
edesignuk said:
The whole thing has ensured the iPhone has stayed in the spot light pretty much non-stop. Next thing is the move to the EU which will continue to keep it in the spot light.

Maybe I'm too cynical and you're too naive. Maybe they're not as scheming as I imagine, but I'm certain all of this isn't a complete accident.
Click to expand...

Ok..well I'll happily accept that...

Personally, I just think a basic release pricing mistake has been made and it needed fixing now to keep sales volumes up.

The product is extraordinarily high tech and to keep million volume sales figures on track it needs a lower $ entry point (and probably to allow a lower entry point when it's released in the EU).

Steve/Apple got the pricing of the original Mac wrong back in 1984 and it nearly killed the whole company. I now see an older wiser man not willing to sit and wait and see the same mistake made twice. Sure it's caused some commotion and some unrest but in a weeks time it'll be long gone and forgotten.

I say we should cut the guy some slack I don't know many CEO's that speak openly to their customers and apologise for getting something a little wrong.

Basically he's just trying to keep Apple moving forward and the product healthy and expand market share. The real money is in selling 50 million iPhones every year not gouging the first million adopters which is why they're giving back...
 
There were rumours circulating on Wednesday that Apple were going to start producing their own soap opera - well I guess this was it!

Anyway, I'm glad that they've sorted it out to most people's satisfaction, and hopefully learnt some valuable lessons along the way.
 
I think all of the praise is exaggerated. after all, SJ was rather arrogant and dismissive at first and, only when bombarded with hundreds of emails (probably more like tens of thousands!), did he take this step. Out of fear that it would become a public relations issue and affect sales.

Ultimately, APPLE MESSED UP with the pricing. This is the least they should do for customers. Sure, it's not usual that any CEO would take these steps, but Apple's CEO is more an icon than an ordinary ceo and different things are expected of him by both the press and customers. This reminds me of how I struggled for a year to get a MBP that worked, literally wasting incredible amounts of time dealing with Apple's BS. Finally they upgraded me from a 15" to a 17" for free and I was so happy and GRATEFUL. Then I thought more about it and realised that what they had done was the very least they should have done given all the time and money I had wasted. But only Apple can make you think that they're doing you a favour when they're really just patching up a mistake THEY made.

It's good that they did this - as it was the right thing to do and most companies don't do the right thing - but at the end of the day it was still Apple who messed up with the pricing and what they did yesterday was a remedial action to avoid a bad image and scaring away customers.


SJ may have taken Apple to new heights, but he's hardly a very pleasant individual.
 
ATG said:
This is why I'm an apple user. They really take care of their customers even when they don't have to. Can you imagine Microsoft doing this?
Click to expand...

Yes, they did do in fact. Gave european customers a few free game plus controller... when the XBox dropped in price ( worth more than $100 )! microosft may be a load of tossers, but, they too look after their customers ( sometimes)
 
I seriously don't get all the complaining from early iPhonw adpoters. I could say: "Boohoo I bought a black Macbook, could have saved $150 if I bought the same in white. And boohoo, it's been upgraded and mine is still old. I bought a black 2G iPod nano a few months ago, now it's $50 cheaper, plays video and comes in different colors. Apple, give me my $200 back!"

I wanted those things at the time I bought them and was willing to pay the price they cost at that time. Macs have usually stable prices, ususally getting cheaper after a generation. But the iPhone is a phone and naturally follows a more aggressive pricing strategy: Make it super expensive, exclusive and desirable, then make it cheaper, then give it away for free as soon as the next model is out. Everyone does it, d'uh!

You should thank Steve for giving you a $100 coupon. It's not his fault if you did not want to wait. You had the iPhone for a while and enjoyed it right?
 
This is pure speculation.
Apple and Google are quite close and they have common board members.So apple will have a good idea about what google is doing, they may even have discussed a joint phone before deciding to go their own ways on it.

What if Apple knows Google's phone is going to shake the mobile market up even more than apples did? It's suppose to be very cheap to buy and to run.

Anyway who knows but I don't think this was pre planned weeks and weeks ago. It's a shame that the price drop is attracting more press than the launch of these brilliant new ipods (here in OZ anyway) The Australian said it is an act of desperation..

http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,22371884-15306,00.html
 
OMG! People are too funny!

I'm reading about Apple conspiracies. It's all be planned from the beginning. People whining about the refund... Steve being so harsh and cold at first... etc...

My goodness.... get a life! Being a product guy in high-tech and a marketing person, my take is that Apple did not expect the backlash they got from the pricedrop. There was no grand plan to piss off ~800K users then toss them a carrot. UGH! And for Jobs being cold in the begining... ah... people, he's the CEO of Apple. He if anyone, has to tout the Apple line and policy. Even Steve can't just run off without talking it over with the Board. Their little $100 rebate will cost the company millions... that needs board approval.

I don't know what people expect. Anyone that buys tech should know they take a chance of better and cheaper coming soon. Apple did a good thing and they did not have to. So enjoy it.
 
Glad I made the switch

I purchased my Intel iMac and a macbook for my wife back in Feb and we haven't looked back since. I also took off of work on launch day of the iphone and gladly stood in line to one of the first. I had to have it!! So when I refreshing like a mad man on this site a couple days ago and saw the price drop for the iphone, I smiled. What was funny was how all of my co-workers (none of which have iphones and on a daily basis want to see mine) ridiculed me for being an early adopter. I obviously had no clue Steve would give every other person who purchased the phone on or near launch such a big "We're sorry" with the store credit, but it made me appreciate my switch over to Apple that much more. Now comes the hard part as to what to buy next. The wife would love an ipod touch. I myself would maybe like to save it for that little thing coming out in October.
 
He's going soft

This is above and beyond what's deserved. Tech prices drop; most pundits and other companies just expect you to deal with it. Steve's going a long way in putting money behind his "Mr Nice Guy image" - I can't think of any other company that would do this...

Though I don't know what Apple's profit ratio is; it certainly won't be costing them $100 per customer.
 
Everyone of those iPhone customers, including myself, knew very well that:

  1. Cell phones have a product refresh cycle of about 6 months - and often the upgrades and price drops are quite dramatic
  2. There was high likelyhood that we saw 3G support or inbuilt GPS, with double the memory and a small price drop in Jan 08.
  3. Apple is getting into completely new customer base here - selling phones in a very competitive market where 'good' phones thrown in for free by the network carriers. Any company, irrespective of their prior grasp of their market, will make some errors in assessment, learn and adjust accordingly to play the market.
Given all the above, I personally felt that the price cut was merely 2-3 months earlier than I anticipated — didn't change how I feel about the company or doubt their commitment or anything. I am a recent switcher and still had the same admiration and adoration — now significantly more, after reading Steve's letter. While upgraded products for cheaper price is common in the tech field, this sort of a gesture from CEO of a 100 billion dollar company is non-existent. Hats off to you, Steve.
 
parsingphase said:
This is above and beyond what's deserved. Tech prices drop; most pundits and other companies just expect you to deal with it. Steve's going a long way in putting money behind his "Mr Nice Guy image" - I can't think of any other company that would do this...

Though I don't know what Apple's profit ratio is; it certainly won't be costing them $100 per customer.
Click to expand...

QFT. Technology is always getting more advanced and cheaper at the same time. Apple went above and beyond what any other company would to stay true to their loyal customers. The "I'll never trust Apple again" comments are ridiculous.
 
iPhone price cut: Official response from Steve Jobs

phil83 said:
You got to be freaking kidding me. This is unheard of in the business world, this one tells you how much they must be making on the iphones, and two how many people were really so upset about this.
Click to expand...

I don't think there were that many iPhone owners that upset over the price cut. Comeon, out of ~700,000 iPhone owners a few hundred wrote Apple. That is like 1/700 (I round up the number of complainers to an even 1,000) or 0.0014%.

Still Steve Jobs offering $100 store credit is a class act that you will not see imitated by other large multinational corporations' CEO.
 
"If you always wait for the next price cut or to buy the new improved model, you'll never buy any technology product because there is always something better and less expensive on the horizon."

I'm so sick of hearing this! Why not a $100 rebate?

Or why not price it at 399 in the first place?

Apple cares about profit first, customers second, or third or fourth....

People will be even more uncomfortable about buying anything else except iPod.

I'm not convinced surfing the internet on a phone will go over very well. Thus the price cut. I haven't used one thou...
 
ngdesign said:
He should release it to other countries before droping the price...
Click to expand...

I think it makes more sense that you release it for a wider audience after a price drop.

High, but unsustained demand X High profit margin = Unhealthy in long run
Sustained high demand X Smaller profit = Desirable outcome
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back