Apple to offer early iPhone adopters $100 credit - Jobs - Page 2

yeah... we noticed your cross-forum spam/whining that continues even after the rebate announcement.

Show me a link to a statute which says that a company cannot lower the price of a consumer product.

Apple were not contractually obligated to hold prices at $599.

If I recall your other posts, you claim that Apple had mentioned that software/feature upgrades were in the short-term pipeline and that Apple didn't provide these software updates prior to the price-drop.

I'm just not seeing how these dots connect in any cogent way.

Thanks Steve, I'm extremely gruntled now.

I wouldn't put it past them, but you can never know for sure.

You know for a company with a market cap of 117.5 billion, I think speninf a couple of million is a great move. This means that early adopters can get say a bluetooth headset free (more or less) so in all, that is not a bad gig.

Way to go Steve, now can we get MMS and video?

Rippey

Late in coming? Its been barely over 24 hours since the price drop announcement.

This is a bigger deal than you realize. Apple was getting something like 300 dollars profit for each 8gig iPhone. Apple just slashed all profits from their iPhone sales approximately 33%.

Considering they already sold enough to make September the month they sold their millionth iPhone, lets take an educated guess that they've sold like 600k since launch. That means 60 million dollars in refunds. Not exactly "chump change", even to a company like Apple.

Compare this to the Red Ring of Death issue with Xbox 360's. Microsoft didn't update the warranty until july 2007, and the 360 launched in may 2005.


Fanboy's of Apple arn't the most annoying thing about Apple to me, it's all the people who browse the rumor forums and whine about how every new hardware or software or service from Apple isn't perfect. If it wern't for the fact that I prefer AppleInsider's articles, I would rather lurk around MacRumors. The posters there are a lot more forgiving than 95% of the people from here.

At the risk of giving Apple too much credit here, did anyone else feel that the Starbucks move may actually represent the first (possibly) successful (but under-the-radar) credit-device?
How much of a stretch is it to add one-click wi-fi order and purchase of a latte as you approach the store. Expand iTunes just a bit to handle other types of transaction, ans voila.. AppleBank?


hmmmm...

Happy now? Ya Babies

Interesting thought. LOL

Great Move STEVE

Now they get to sell even more Apple products

Watch Apple stock tomorrow.

Has anyone seen DIGG?

I have never seen the counter move so fast. Apple fan boys are amazing!

It is on pace to top the list in less than an hour!

http://www.digg.com/all/popular/24hours

...where's my other 100 hundred dollars? I believe I lost two hundred to this deal.

I have yet to buy an iPhone but I definitely felt empathy to all who had and while it's not an exact refund of $200.00 or even $100.00, a $100.00 in store credit is at least an attempt by Steve Jobs and Apple to make things right... Afterall, was it not Steve Jobs who said at the introduction of the iTunes Music Store a few years back that buying from iTMS instead of peer to peer file sharing was good Karma? Glad to see a little good Karma from SJ!

To all who said get over the $200.00 price reduction and stop whinning...

Remember this, "it is the squeaky wheel that gets greased"!

Happy for my fellow Apple aficionados

His letter isn't dated so you must be right. Good move Steve!
http://www.apple.com/hotnews/openiphoneletter/

I didn't say that a company can never lower the price of a consumer product - I suggested that consumer protection laws did regulate pricing practices. I'm sorry you can't see how to connect the dots - I doubt I can help you on that front.

This nation has been breeding huge numbers of whiners over the past few decades. It's only going to get worse as these whiners start breeding with each other.

this is why i'm an apple guy,,,,,,,would ANY OTHER tech company do this????? no way, what about a cellular carrier...no way.....apple is showing the way to a better relationship with wireless customers
BRAVO SJ

from the open letter "Therefore, we have decided to offer every iPhone customer who purchased an iPhone from either Apple or AT&T, and who is not receiving a rebate or any other consideration, a $100 store credit towards the purchase of any product at an Apple Retail Store or the Apple Online Store. Details are still being worked out and will be posted on Apple's website next week. Stay tuned."

To get the rebate - I bet each iphone owner will have to agree to some a contractual provision to give up claims related to the ownership of the subject iphone. I believe this is worded this way because Apple believed otherwise they risked claims...

Take it and dont moan guys. You wouldnt see Nokia handing out these sort of credits for any misdoings.

All that has been done by complaining about normal decreases in pricing is that next time Apple won't decrease the price. Or they will decrease it by $50 instead.

All that the complaining has done is to make everyone who buys Apple products pay more in the future.

Thanks for nothing!

But of course, everybody here that didn't mind the $200 price drop and called people whiners won't be taking up Apple's $100 credit offer, right?

You forgot to add the just joking icon to your post. You are are kidding riiiight?

well said!

What do you mean past few decades??? Try 'this county's inception'! Just go search and read letters from the Revolutionary War, where General Washington's troops were whinning over no housing, lack of clothing and blankets, lack of food, boots, ammunition, not being paid on time, etc. and nobody asked them to pick up a gun and fight...

The greatest generation, or at least what is left of them, they survived the Depression and World War II, but tell them there is a reduction in their Social Security Benefits and Medicare, etc., and hear them revolt!

The Civil Rights marches, why have them? The U.S. Supreme Court (at one time) said that spearate but equal was just fiine. Some people whined saying, no it isn't...

Granted, a high tech device pales in comparision, but it is the fact that like the courts say, pornography cannot be defined, but I know it when I see it. Well being wronged may be hard to define, but people know it when they see it!

Wow...

certainly didn't expect it, but I am sure glad they are doing this! Looks like my 24" imac will be a $100 less (in a sense).

So do hemorrhoids.

Wrong...again. Sad. Give it up.

from the open letter "Therefore, we have decided to offer every iPhone customer who purchased an iPhone from either Apple or AT&T, and who is not receiving a rebate or any other consideration, a $100 store credit towards the purchase of any product at an Apple Retail Store or the Apple Online Store. Details are still being worked out and will be posted on Apple's website next week. Stay tuned."

To get the rebate - I bet each iphone owner will have to agree to some a contractual provision to give up claims related to the ownership of the subject iphone. I believe this is worded this way because Apple believed otherwise they risked claims...

I have to say that was pretty cool of Steve.

Whatever, I accept gratefully. I am happy both for myself and also for Apple where I have a lot of investment. This is the right thing to do and is a total win win.

That iPod touch just came in to range

Thank you Steve.

the whole thing is scary ...

do not know the long term implication for apple and its customers!.

on this point i disagree - i'm interested, that you feel so passionately about your views.

Sorry to all for the double post - I hit the wrong button when I tried to refresh my screen

Ooooh...posted the same post twice...okay, here it goes again:

Wrong...again. Sad. Give it up.

It is good to whine, otherwise no one would care. The whiner majority won (I'd whine too). Congrats!

Does it matter?

Jeez, you do talk a load of crap. Wannabe lawyers

Steve Jobs has sent a clear message that when you buy something from Apple, it won't hurt when you sit down.

This is a masterstroke. He doesn't have to do this, but he does it anyway. Look at the benefits: He wins back his fanboys who have been selling and servicing his merchandise at no cost to Apple. He makes it safe to be an early adopter again. He kills--and overwhelms--all the negative publicity that might affect new customers.

True, we willingly paid the $600 for the iPhone, and we even figured the price would go down, but the price cut was quicker and deeper than anyone could reasonably anticipate. His kindness is equally unprecedented. He sends us a clear message that we don't need to worry that we might get iPhoned again. He turns a bad situation into a golden opportunity to differentiate Apple from others in the software, hardware, entertainment, and cell phone industries. Would Microsoft do this? Would Dell do this? Would Paramount do this? Would AT&T do this? No, because they don't have Jobs' eye for the bottom line.

There is even more benefit for Apple. Think of it: a $100 credit is worth $100 to us, but if we use it on a product with a 50% mark up, it only costs Apple $50. It also means that Apple gets a sale they'd otherwise not get from a relieved and happy customer. On top of all that, there are going to be people who never use it, which reduces the cost of his generosity even more.

In the long run, he's paying a bargain price for a boatload of good will and good publicity--and he deserves every bit of it. He proves himself a shrewd businessman who sees that the route to a healthy bottom line is through happy customers.

One of my former bosses used to say that when you get screwed, you're supposed to get a kiss. I just got a kiss, all is forgiven, and I am an even more loyal Apple customer than ever before.

you work for M$???

I think Apple's iphone marketing strategy was genius. You have to assume that, even at the new $399 price, Apple is clearing a tidy amount on each iphone....otherwise they couldn't and wouldn't have reduced the price. They dangled a carrot out there at $599 just to see how many idiots would bite....and sold about a million!! So, a nice reasonable profit--PLUS an extra $200 premium per unit on top of that--for every unit they sold--for over 60 days.

So now the pool of "gotta have it" people they milked for $599 has pretty much dried up. Now we are down to the more sane people who merely just want an iphone or are thinking about it. Apple's trouble was they couldn't sell the 8 gig touch (basically an iphone without the phone) for $299 and keep selling 8 gig iphones for $599. That would have made it blatantly obvious that the iphone was a pretty poor value at its original price (for the suckers that hadn't already figured that out). So they HAD to reduce the price. What was a reasonable price? As it stands now, paying an extra $100 for the iphone vs the touch is very reasonable for most people. Plus, we will be seeing a more capable iphone 2nd gen coming out after the first of the year, likely with 3G capability. So the 1st gen is a bit of a lame duck and what better time to clear them out than the holidays?

Genius, I say. Genius. Even with a $100 rebate they still raked it in for the first 2 months...hell, it's not even a rebate, it's a credit...

Good Job!!!

Its funny watching these people. Everyone is all happy now but they don't understand no one is getting a check in the mail. It's not a real credit or rebate you have to spend more money to get your 100.00.

It's a PR move that looks great but in the end will end up costing Apple very little if anything. Sure they will give you 100.00 back when you buy a Macbook or Macbook Pro thats not a bad deal for Apple seeing they are already making 50% on their hardware. Or maybe that copy of Photoshop CS3 for 650.00 that they already discount to Teachers for 199.00.

I always find it funny when someone gets people to spend more money in order to get "money back". This was a great move it will get the whiners to spend even more money, they can't help it its like a sick addiction.

If Apple had to mail out checks to everyone then that would be a true give back of 100.00 to give it to you your next purchase will at best maybe cost Apple 25.00 a pop, maybe I doubt even that much.