I think everyone who wants to bitch should like bitch for a day or two more and then move on. Unless you can get your money back (recent buyers).. it's no use obsessing. Go ahead, bitch and then just forget about it. That's how i dealt with my G5 purchase (made a few months before apple announced the intel switch). Still have that G5 btw (paid too much, would be painful to sell at steep discount). Did i mention that experience was the event that caused me to question every apple product price since? (yes, i used to be just like Mel, whatever apple charges was great cause apple would never overcharge us, they are like the mother Theresa of companies). Not only did I bitch, i almost was crying. It was that upsetting to me. Within about 2 months i think (or a little less), my $4,300 purchase was obsolete.
I actually think apple needs to do this a few more times. Apple customers are not smart shoppers. By this, i don't mean we lack intelligence (i for one am a smart person).. by this i meant shop smart. We tend to pay whatever apple demands. No way would a windows user pay whatever Dell demands. They'd shop around first!. Apple is the only game in town for apple products so it's difficult to shop around but we don't ask questions. I've never seen an apple faithful ever question apple prices, it's always being defended. I know why. For many years, the PC people put out propaganda that apple computers were expensive and therefore, people should buy windows computers. Apple faithful have been defending apple so long, that now, it's automatic for every product. It's an instinctive reaction. By always defending apple pricing, we have become dumb shoppers (smart people, but not shop smart). We have lost the ability to critically analyze apple prices to figure out if it makes sense. We trust apple and assume they would never overcharge and even if they did, it was a small premium for an exclusive product. $200 is definitely not a small premium.
I think that is why a lot of people are upset. No one likes to feel like they have been taken for a ride and have been duped. Apple does this a few more times, we all will stop making excuses for this company and become smart shoppers. Sure, you cannot shop around (only 1 company makes the iphone) but you can tell apple the price is not sweet by staying away from overpriced products. If apple wanted your business, they will then lower the price to whatever you felt was reasonable (and btw, free is not reasonable. It's ok to pay a bit more for apple stuff but make sure it's not a whole lot more).
Have NONE of you purchased a new car?!?! You wanna bitch about something now THATS something to bitch about... Just think how much value that car drops in mere seconds after driving it off the lot...
Dave
Yes, Dave, but that's entirely distinguishable, isn't it?
This is the equivalent of you buying a shiny new $30,000 convertible on Monday and driving by the lot on Thursday to see the EXACT SAME CAR sitting there for $20,000. You'd be pissed.
The depreciation related to driving it off the lot is something you know about in advance and accept by buying the car anyway.
I know he was addressing me. And I was addressing him. Not you. You don't have to defend him, or attack me, though I don't care if you do.
What I was pointing out to him was that many others have addressed others with his position, in the same way I addressed him. The others didn't react the way he did.
When on a public forum such as this, which is after all, a fan site. You have to expect that when you make statements like that, you will be called to the carpet, directly.
Some are always going to be unhappy whenever a price drops greatly shortly after they bought a product. It doesn't matter when it came out.
You may think I'm a "pointed jackass" because I tell it like it is. Fine. Possibly you are as well for getting involved in this at all, when I didn't even address you.
I wasn't attacking you, I was just "telling it like it is." Grow up.
Wait a second! You "overpaid" for your iPhone? So you're saying you knew it wasn't a good deal when you bought it? I wouldn't call you a "sucker." ... Moron, idiot, loser; these words are more applicable.
Oh, my f*cking god! What is it with all you people who can't wait to jump on here and attack someone else instead of discussing the issue itself? You should certainly be thankful for your internet anonymity 'cause if I were next to you right now, I'd pop you in the mouth.
I did NOT think that $599 was a "bad deal" until today when Apple announced to the world that, yes, it was a bad deal. Lowering the price so significantly indicates that it was dramatically over-priced at launch. Compared to the top of the line iPods and Crackberries, the features, including the incredibly slick, touch-screen interface seemed compelling enough to justify the price. I still struggled with it and had I not had extra money in my checking account from a bonus I received at work, I doubt I could have justified the cost.
There are so many problems with the arguments that this is "normal business practice," or "a price-correction," or "all products eventually decrease in price." Yes of course all of these are true to an extent, but not in such a short amount of time and it is certainly not historically typical of Apple. The time between their product refreshes has been getting longer and longer over the last 2 to 3 years, and historically, price drops on devices in the iPod family occur rarely. Instead, features, usually storage space, are added to justify maintaining the existing price point. There was just no anticipating a move this drastic. I'm mostly over it now, but I'm not over all the rude people in this community that contribute nothing constructive, yet expend excessive energy trying to beat down the thoughts and opinions of other forum posters.
you whiny bitches... Apple is doing the same thing it always does. It's just now they are in a market where cycles are a lot closer.
The fact remains that if you wanna play, you gotta pay. And you did, and you've been enjoying your iPhone and rubbing it everyone else's faces for two months now. You were king of the world for a while, you got what you paid for.
Now shut up.
How stupid. This price drop is not anything approaching standard for Apple or the industry as a whole. It is a singular and dramatic event.
I don't seem to remember "rubbing everyone else's faces" in the fact that I had an iPhone. Sounds like something only a giant douchebag would do. Or maybe that's what you think normal behavior is.
Hahaha... You guy's are hillarious... You want to be on the bleeding edge sucking the seeds from apples core and then you bitch about the price correction. Suck it up bitches, the price of bragging about owning an iPhone cost you $200.. Live with it.
I am angered most of all by all the foolish posts here by people defending Apple on this. And heck, I don't even own an iPhone! In addition, I am one to defend Apple much of the time. So I would like to emphasize just how silly these defensive remarks are. While they are valid in many other situations where Apple has dropped the price of a product, arguments are irrelevant in this case.
Two months after the opening release, the product is doing well AND the price drops by 66%?! Two months, folks. Repeat that, you blind defenders of the status quo. TWO MONTHS!
This is not "normal business practice" for a product doing well. Maybe a fire sale for a product not selling at all, but certainly not for a product doing well. And while there have been such huge price drops by other companies in the past, I don't know of any that drop the price by 66% only TWO MONTHS after the initial release when the product is selling well!
And so, people complaining in this thread and those wanting a $200 rebate are totally free, in my opinion, to complain to their heart's content. These are not evil people. These are your fellow Apple lovers who bought the iPhone for that reason -- the love of it. But our love is not blind, and many of us who bought the iPhone at $599 are legitimately upset about a $200 drop in price. So lay off these folks and let them complain. It's irrelevant if their complaints will change anything. They have the right to vent some steam over this!
You can talk all you want about "what's best for Apple" and "here's why they did it." But none of those arguments hold any water at all in light of this "two month fiasco." Two months, folks! Two months!
Or better yet, you buy a Mac Pro for $2499 and two months later you can't give it away for $1100. Would YOU be happy in one of those situations? (and don't say $2500 if more than $600 or $10,000 drop is a lot more than $300. That's obvious, and you've missed the point ENTIRELY)
I feel your frustration, but this is a very high end cellular phone, not a car or investment. This depreciation is quite normal. Anyone that didn't expect this price cut was delusional. The aggressive part comes in with just how large this price cut is- frustrating for the early adopters, but Apple can ramp up production and lock in decent prices on flash ram now, whoever said economies of scale was spot on, so they could not have known ahead of time they would be able to lower it this much. This will lure in waves of new buyers.
Cant say I'm mad about the price drop because I got mine for free but easy on my pocket when I get my wife one. Does this mean someone is going to sue Apple becuase they didnt disclose to customers that the price was going to be dropped? LOL!! I will have seen everything if that happens...
... Yes of course all of these are true to an extent, but not in such a short amount of time and it is certainly not historically typical of Apple. The time between their product refreshes has been getting longer and longer over the last 2 to 3 years, and historically, price drops on devices in the iPod family occur rarely. Instead, features, usually storage space, are added to justify maintaining the existing price point.
Uh, so Apple shouldn't be free to modify their pricing practices because it might reveal that their products are price-inflated cash cows that a) keep Wall Street happy and b) allow competitive maneuvering like we've just seen to lock up demand going into the holiday season?
Do you really prefer the model in your quote, where Apple keeps prices artificially high to provide consumers like you a feel-good illusion of value that indirectly diminishes through "feature" updates?
I'll take this model any day: Price cuts and feature updates.
Two months after the opening release, the product is doing well AND the price drops by 66%?! Two months, folks. Repeat that, you blind defenders of the status quo. TWO MONTHS!
That is the nature of technology. Us geeks have known about this kind of thing and dealt with it accordingly. That's why you don't see us running out the door to buy BluRay players for $1000. Already they are much cheaper and it will continue. It is called economies of scale.
Us geeks are good at math too- the price drop was 33%, not 66%... check your facts before writing tirades.
I don't own the iPhone, and I will vigorously defend Apple.
Once again I'd like to thank my American colleagues across the ocean in the colonies. You're doing well at sorting out all the niggles before they launch in Europe.
Cross off another one today - "Price too high".
Ah, we do it with just about everything else, including pharmaceuticals, so what's an iPhone between friends.....
Why are people upset. Apple didnt force you to buy the iPhone when it came out. Apple is a company that produces product that attracts the eye. If you bought one before the price drop, you was attracted to it. So what if Apple did it TWO MONTHS afterwards, its their product and their company, and theres nothing you can do about it. If they wanted to drop the price two week afterwards I'm sure they would have. If seem all people do is complain but yet YOU STILL BUY THE PRODUCTS!!!
Two months after the opening release, the product is doing well AND the price drops by 66%?! ... many of us who bought the iPhone at $599 are legitimately upset about a $200 drop in price.
Seems to me a $200 price reduction is a 33% price drop, not 66%. The iPhone now sells for 67% of what it did yesterday.
I'm not blindly defending Apple. I just believe that if you pay X for a product and feel satisfied within the return period of the product, it shouldn't matter what happens in the marketplace afterward. There's a bit too much entitlement involved in an argument claiming a company has breached some sort of fiduciary duty by not adjusting prices as they see fit.
I am in agreement with people that on principle the gouging of your loyalists is not smart business policy. All marketing references to price drops aside, it took advantage of people willing to believe. What i am astounded by the most is not the terse feelings of those gouged but by the attacks of those with opposing opinions. I have drank the Apple Kool-Aid for some time now but this is a despicable act and we can let it stand at that.
The $600 cost for a phone does not bother me but not making some offering for the loyalists is not wise. Consumers can find a multitude of ways to harm your business and Apple seems arrogant enough to start offending people now. Just ask Detroit what happens over the years when one does not listen to its customers. While the $200 dilution will not put anyone in the bread line, I can assure you there are many on this forum that will not be he first suckers again. I surely will not and nor will I immediately buy their other products which I control to budget to do so. Lets be honest with each other and recognize that there are other options.
I have bought Apple Products because I am a small business owner and I like seeing the smaller entities progress. Apple did a lot to make me change my opinion of them and to now put them in the ranks of arrogant large company's hell bent on taken advantage of consumers. It is NOT necessary to harm your customers to realize great business success and advantage. My $200 dollar lesson from Apple is that they do not give a damn and I now understand that point. $200 is far too little money to risk potential for lifelong customers. This is the bigger message and not the fact that prices ultmately always fall..... Cut those that are offended some slack, it really was a shitty thing for Apple to do....
Comments
I actually think apple needs to do this a few more times. Apple customers are not smart shoppers. By this, i don't mean we lack intelligence (i for one am a smart person).. by this i meant shop smart. We tend to pay whatever apple demands. No way would a windows user pay whatever Dell demands. They'd shop around first!. Apple is the only game in town for apple products so it's difficult to shop around but we don't ask questions. I've never seen an apple faithful ever question apple prices, it's always being defended. I know why. For many years, the PC people put out propaganda that apple computers were expensive and therefore, people should buy windows computers. Apple faithful have been defending apple so long, that now, it's automatic for every product. It's an instinctive reaction. By always defending apple pricing, we have become dumb shoppers (smart people, but not shop smart). We have lost the ability to critically analyze apple prices to figure out if it makes sense. We trust apple and assume they would never overcharge and even if they did, it was a small premium for an exclusive product. $200 is definitely not a small premium.
I think that is why a lot of people are upset. No one likes to feel like they have been taken for a ride and have been duped. Apple does this a few more times, we all will stop making excuses for this company and become smart shoppers. Sure, you cannot shop around (only 1 company makes the iphone) but you can tell apple the price is not sweet by staying away from overpriced products. If apple wanted your business, they will then lower the price to whatever you felt was reasonable (and btw, free is not reasonable. It's ok to pay a bit more for apple stuff but make sure it's not a whole lot more).
Have NONE of you purchased a new car?!?! You wanna bitch about something now THATS something to bitch about... Just think how much value that car drops in mere seconds after driving it off the lot...
Dave
Yes, Dave, but that's entirely distinguishable, isn't it?
This is the equivalent of you buying a shiny new $30,000 convertible on Monday and driving by the lot on Thursday to see the EXACT SAME CAR sitting there for $20,000. You'd be pissed.
The depreciation related to driving it off the lot is something you know about in advance and accept by buying the car anyway.
I know he was addressing me. And I was addressing him. Not you. You don't have to defend him, or attack me, though I don't care if you do.
What I was pointing out to him was that many others have addressed others with his position, in the same way I addressed him. The others didn't react the way he did.
When on a public forum such as this, which is after all, a fan site. You have to expect that when you make statements like that, you will be called to the carpet, directly.
Some are always going to be unhappy whenever a price drops greatly shortly after they bought a product. It doesn't matter when it came out.
You may think I'm a "pointed jackass" because I tell it like it is. Fine. Possibly you are as well for getting involved in this at all, when I didn't even address you.
I wasn't attacking you, I was just "telling it like it is." Grow up.
Not for TWO months. Maybe 10 months, 1 year, 2 years, hell something substantial!
If you cound't tell, I'm REALLY pissed about this.
I can honestly say I've never bought ANYTHING that was devalued this much this fast in 25 years.
One question: Did you feel it was worth what you paid for it yesterday?
Wait a second! You "overpaid" for your iPhone? So you're saying you knew it wasn't a good deal when you bought it? I wouldn't call you a "sucker." ... Moron, idiot, loser; these words are more applicable.
Oh, my f*cking god! What is it with all you people who can't wait to jump on here and attack someone else instead of discussing the issue itself? You should certainly be thankful for your internet anonymity 'cause if I were next to you right now, I'd pop you in the mouth.
I did NOT think that $599 was a "bad deal" until today when Apple announced to the world that, yes, it was a bad deal. Lowering the price so significantly indicates that it was dramatically over-priced at launch. Compared to the top of the line iPods and Crackberries, the features, including the incredibly slick, touch-screen interface seemed compelling enough to justify the price. I still struggled with it and had I not had extra money in my checking account from a bonus I received at work, I doubt I could have justified the cost.
There are so many problems with the arguments that this is "normal business practice," or "a price-correction," or "all products eventually decrease in price." Yes of course all of these are true to an extent, but not in such a short amount of time and it is certainly not historically typical of Apple. The time between their product refreshes has been getting longer and longer over the last 2 to 3 years, and historically, price drops on devices in the iPod family occur rarely. Instead, features, usually storage space, are added to justify maintaining the existing price point. There was just no anticipating a move this drastic. I'm mostly over it now, but I'm not over all the rude people in this community that contribute nothing constructive, yet expend excessive energy trying to beat down the thoughts and opinions of other forum posters.
you whiny bitches... Apple is doing the same thing it always does. It's just now they are in a market where cycles are a lot closer.
The fact remains that if you wanna play, you gotta pay. And you did, and you've been enjoying your iPhone and rubbing it everyone else's faces for two months now. You were king of the world for a while, you got what you paid for.
Now shut up.
How stupid. This price drop is not anything approaching standard for Apple or the industry as a whole. It is a singular and dramatic event.
I don't seem to remember "rubbing everyone else's faces" in the fact that I had an iPhone. Sounds like something only a giant douchebag would do. Or maybe that's what you think normal behavior is.
Hahaha... You guy's are hillarious... You want to be on the bleeding edge sucking the seeds from apples core and then you bitch about the price correction. Suck it up bitches, the price of bragging about owning an iPhone cost you $200.. Live with it.
Word.
It's "ringtones."
you're sense of humor has escaped you apparently
The what? Zut Alors! Try 'cachet'.
Although perhaps hiding might be a good idea if you bought an iPhone at $599 whilst the Nelson-esque "Ha Ha"'s die down.
Touché!
I was never good in French.
No, I haven't bought one yet. like you, I'm going to wait until it has the features I need.
Don't let that scare you off.
Two months after the opening release, the product is doing well AND the price drops by 66%?! Two months, folks. Repeat that, you blind defenders of the status quo. TWO MONTHS!
This is not "normal business practice" for a product doing well. Maybe a fire sale for a product not selling at all, but certainly not for a product doing well. And while there have been such huge price drops by other companies in the past, I don't know of any that drop the price by 66% only TWO MONTHS after the initial release when the product is selling well!
And so, people complaining in this thread and those wanting a $200 rebate are totally free, in my opinion, to complain to their heart's content. These are not evil people. These are your fellow Apple lovers who bought the iPhone for that reason -- the love of it. But our love is not blind, and many of us who bought the iPhone at $599 are legitimately upset about a $200 drop in price. So lay off these folks and let them complain. It's irrelevant if their complaints will change anything. They have the right to vent some steam over this!
You can talk all you want about "what's best for Apple" and "here's why they did it." But none of those arguments hold any water at all in light of this "two month fiasco." Two months, folks! Two months!
Or better yet, you buy a Mac Pro for $2499 and two months later you can't give it away for $1100. Would YOU be happy in one of those situations? (and don't say $2500 if more than $600 or $10,000 drop is a lot more than $300. That's obvious, and you've missed the point ENTIRELY)
I feel your frustration, but this is a very high end cellular phone, not a car or investment. This depreciation is quite normal. Anyone that didn't expect this price cut was delusional. The aggressive part comes in with just how large this price cut is- frustrating for the early adopters, but Apple can ramp up production and lock in decent prices on flash ram now, whoever said economies of scale was spot on, so they could not have known ahead of time they would be able to lower it this much. This will lure in waves of new buyers.
I wasn't attacking you, I was just "telling it like it is." Grow up.
That's very funny
That's very funny
... Yes of course all of these are true to an extent, but not in such a short amount of time and it is certainly not historically typical of Apple. The time between their product refreshes has been getting longer and longer over the last 2 to 3 years, and historically, price drops on devices in the iPod family occur rarely. Instead, features, usually storage space, are added to justify maintaining the existing price point.
Uh, so Apple shouldn't be free to modify their pricing practices because it might reveal that their products are price-inflated cash cows that a) keep Wall Street happy and b) allow competitive maneuvering like we've just seen to lock up demand going into the holiday season?
Do you really prefer the model in your quote, where Apple keeps prices artificially high to provide consumers like you a feel-good illusion of value that indirectly diminishes through "feature" updates?
I'll take this model any day: Price cuts and feature updates.
Two months after the opening release, the product is doing well AND the price drops by 66%?! Two months, folks. Repeat that, you blind defenders of the status quo. TWO MONTHS!
That is the nature of technology. Us geeks have known about this kind of thing and dealt with it accordingly. That's why you don't see us running out the door to buy BluRay players for $1000. Already they are much cheaper and it will continue. It is called economies of scale.
Us geeks are good at math too- the price drop was 33%, not 66%... check your facts before writing tirades.
I don't own the iPhone, and I will vigorously defend Apple.
Once again I'd like to thank my American colleagues across the ocean in the colonies. You're doing well at sorting out all the niggles before they launch in Europe.
Cross off another one today - "Price too high".
Ah, we do it with just about everything else, including pharmaceuticals, so what's an iPhone between friends.....
Two months after the opening release, the product is doing well AND the price drops by 66%?! ... many of us who bought the iPhone at $599 are legitimately upset about a $200 drop in price.
Seems to me a $200 price reduction is a 33% price drop, not 66%. The iPhone now sells for 67% of what it did yesterday.
I'm not blindly defending Apple. I just believe that if you pay X for a product and feel satisfied within the return period of the product, it shouldn't matter what happens in the marketplace afterward. There's a bit too much entitlement involved in an argument claiming a company has breached some sort of fiduciary duty by not adjusting prices as they see fit.
The $600 cost for a phone does not bother me but not making some offering for the loyalists is not wise. Consumers can find a multitude of ways to harm your business and Apple seems arrogant enough to start offending people now. Just ask Detroit what happens over the years when one does not listen to its customers. While the $200 dilution will not put anyone in the bread line, I can assure you there are many on this forum that will not be he first suckers again. I surely will not and nor will I immediately buy their other products which I control to budget to do so. Lets be honest with each other and recognize that there are other options.
I have bought Apple Products because I am a small business owner and I like seeing the smaller entities progress. Apple did a lot to make me change my opinion of them and to now put them in the ranks of arrogant large company's hell bent on taken advantage of consumers. It is NOT necessary to harm your customers to realize great business success and advantage. My $200 dollar lesson from Apple is that they do not give a damn and I now understand that point. $200 is far too little money to risk potential for lifelong customers. This is the bigger message and not the fact that prices ultmately always fall..... Cut those that are offended some slack, it really was a shitty thing for Apple to do....