Jobs snubs early iPhone adopters
Let it not be said that any Mac addict would speak out against the godfather that is Steve Jobs; however, yesterday he announced a drastic reduction in the price of the iPhone just two months after its release. The Apple community has reacted in an understandably outraged and hurt fashion, and Job’s response was simply, “That’s technology.”
Rubbing salt in the wound, the price drop is hefty: $399 from a previous $599. In an interview with USA Today, Steve stated that users who purchased an iPhone yesterday morning before the announcement should definitely return it for a price reduction, but if users purchased the phone outside the return period, they’re pretty much out of luck, as that is the technology industry.
Though it is true that technology tends to outdate itself rapidly in today’s market, a couple months’ separation between $399 and $599 should set of warning bells in customers’ heads. After all, its not like flash memory prices dropped substantially between July and now…nor did Apple start importing parts from Malaysian sweat shops for drastically reduced prices.
What, then, is the message to the Apple community? “Thanks for adopting our early technology, and thanks for the extra $200 your friends who had the willpower to hold out a while won’t have to spend for the exact same thing.”
That could lead to another question: how can Apple afford to drop the price of their hot-selling mobile device 30%? Was the profit margin that great the unit that they can sell it for $200 less and still stand to gain?
One of two things can be derived from this turn of events: either Apple was essentially scalping early adopters with substantially over-priced iPhones, or they intentionally planned a drop in price to take their sales to the next level.
Either way, it is obvious that Apple didn’t mind delivering a nice slap to the face of those well-intentioned early adopters of the iPhone. For a community that is so fully absorbed in all things Apple, this latest ploy could really drive a rift between Steve Jobs and Apple and the community if not handled correctly…a step in the right direction would not be telling the world, “That’s technology.”
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