Running out of iPhones is pretty unprofessional...

[sjo]

they were flying out of the door at £169.

apparently not for customers wanting to commit into 18 month contracts

How to get rid of them? O2 priced them below AT&T iphones so people from China and Russia would buy the iphones from O2 instead of AT&T (to be exported to China and Russia)

 

[ingenious]

There's nothing like a shortage to create demand

that's what I'm thinking.

 

[sananda]

apparently not for customers wanting to commit into 18 month contracts

if that's true, it would explain a lot. i have no idea whether it is true or not.

but the fact remains that if you pop into an o2 shop and request to enter into an 18 month iphone contract, you will be shown the door.

 

[newyorksole]

i think they stopped making them online because the new 2.0 software may have some apps that need 3g, and cannot handle edge. and if people keep on buying th 1st gen and then those people cant buy those apps. apple could make money off of discontinuing the 1st gen before 3g because then people will buy more of the apps.
i dont know if i explained it right, its kind of hard, i cant get the right words out my keyboard.

I get what you are saying, but Steve Jobs said that you will be able to download Apps over the edge network. If this is the case then I don't think apps will be made that won't work well with EDGE. Well I suppose AIM or some other apps won't work well with EDGE, but we will have to wait and see. Really wanna see what apps are being made and really wanna see this 3G iPHone!!!!!!!!!

 

[samab]

No, they did. Are you saying it was a mistake they dropped the price?

No, I am saying that it was a mistake to price the iphone at $600 in the first place. The $200 price drop is intentional --- in the sense --- that they have to fix the original pricing error (which was a un-intentional mistake).

 

[zap2]

No, I am saying that it was a mistake to price the iphone at $600 in the first place. The $200 price drop is intentional --- in the sense --- that they have to fix the original pricing error (which was a un-intentional mistake).

Why? Apple made more money. Sure they paid back the 100, but still thats an extra 100 on each iPhone they sold early on.(Plus they keep that money in their stores, by giving out gift cards)

Plus the marketing, "Hey,this 600USD phone is now only 400USD!"

 

[David G.]

Hi all, I'm from England and just wanted to say that I think running out of iPhones and reporting them as currently available is pretty unprofessional in my opinion. I think Apple should have had a replacement lined up before now, especially if the new iPhone is still a month away.

However, it will prevent Apple having to dish out $100 refunds when the new one is introduced.

Fixed that for you.

 

[SDLSteve]

It's a good tactical move on Apple's part. They're creating a demand for the new phone by not having stock of the old.

 

[samab]

Why? Apple made more money. Sure they paid back the 100, but still thats an extra 100 on each iPhone they sold early on.(Plus they keep that money in their stores, by giving out gift cards)

Plus the marketing, "Hey,this 600USD phone is now only 400USD!"

Not much extra money --- they announced their price drop at the same time as they announced that they sold 1 million iphones. Not all the iphones sold were the $600 model --- so the extra money comes at less than $100 million.

$100 million is not enough to recover the damage to the iphone brand name by saying that they made a mistake in pricing them in the first place.

 

[dacreativeguy]

Apple is among the best at controlling inventories. When a company's new models have to compete against its old models, it is hard to maintain the prices. When have you ever seen Apple products at "blowout prices". Not often.

Selling out old inventory... and selling it out early... protects Apple's prices and generates more demand. In this case, however, I think Apple underestimated the popularity of the iphone and ran out a few weeks too early. They usually coordinate their shortages with new releases with more accuracy.

 

[samab]

Apple is among the best at controlling inventories. When a company's new models have to compete against its old models, it is hard to maintain the prices. When have you ever seen Apple products at "blowout prices". Not often.

Selling out old inventory... and selling it out early... protects Apple's prices and generates more demand. In this case, however, I think Apple underestimated the popularity of the iphone and ran out a few weeks too early. They usually coordinate their shortages with new releases with more accuracy.

No --- it's the other way around --- Apple overestimated the popularity of the iphone. If their original estimates were correct --- then the European carriers would have run out their initial iphone inventory after Christmas and would have to restock their inventory in January.

These carriers never restock their inventory and Apple had to tell their taiwanese suppliers to stop making the first generation iphone.