indieshack

lkrupp said:

Who makes these decisions at Apple? What idiot thought offering $200 for the return of those $500 kits would not create outrage and controversy? Did that same idiot actually think developers, Apple’s life blood, would take it up the wazoo and be glad about it? In my opinion Apple should have offered those kits to legitimate developers free of charge. And Apple’s backdown after the controversy isn’t good optics either. Stupidity on display.

It was at the very least a PR mistake.

dewme said:

The number of units involved and the financial impact on Apple is a drop in the bucket (even after Apple upped the rebate to $500). I cannot imagine Apple nickel and diming about this, especially with their dev community.  Something else is at play here. 

Not sure I agree - all of Apple’s component units are pushed to make money, or at least not hemorrhage money. This appears to simply be a case of an Apple unit attempting to recoup the cost of the devices from developers - make no mistake, these won’t turn up on Apple Refurbished, they’ll be junked and/or the components/case salvaged. How many were distributed? Yes, a drop in the bucket compared to regular sale numbers but probably not insignificant - I’d guess over half a million.

elijahg said:

indieshack said:

Apple just sent out a mea culpa "We heard you" email: Voucher now $500 and you can keep the device until the end of '21.

Someone messed up bigtime.

Lots of red faces for the Apple apologists here then. 

Frankly, it beggared belief - from one of the richest companies in the world - it just felt cheap. 

Apple just sent out a mea culpa "We heard you" email: Voucher now $500 and the voucher is valid until the end of '21.

Someone messed up bigtime.

Nothing I wouldn't have expected from Apple - I got the letter yesterday. Apple squeezes every department for $$$ who in turn squeeze the public and developers. You could certainly argue that all companies are like this, with Apple it's particularly so. I was hoping for a $500 voucher, they'll probably have us pay for shipping too