"To all iPhone customers" -Steve Jobs (Apple is NOT a ruthless corporation)

To all iPhone customers:

I have received hundreds of emails from iPhone customers who are upset about Apple dropping the price of iPhone by $200 two months after it went on sale. After reading every one of these emails, I have some observations and conclusions.

First, I am sure that we are making the correct decision to lower the price of the 8GB iPhone from $599 to $399, and that now is the right time to do it. iPhone is a breakthrough product, and we have the chance to 'go for it' this holiday season. iPhone is so far ahead of the competition, and now it will be affordable by even more customers. It benefits both Apple and every iPhone user to get as many new customers as possible in the iPhone 'tent'. We strongly believe the $399 price will help us do just that this holiday season.

Second, being in technology for 30+ years I can attest to the fact that the technology road is bumpy. There is always change and improvement, and there is always someone who bought a product before a particular cutoff date and misses the new price or the new operating system or the new whatever. This is life in the technology lane. If you always wait for the next price cut or to buy the new improved model, you'll never buy any technology product because there is always something better and less expensive on the horizon. The good news is that if you buy products from companies that support them well, like Apple tries to do, you will receive years of useful and satisfying service from them even as newer models are introduced.

Third, even though we are making the right decision to lower the price of iPhone, and even though the technology road is bumpy, we need to do a better job taking care of our early iPhone customers as we aggressively go after new ones with a lower price. Our early customers trusted us, and we must live up to that trust with our actions in moments like these.

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.

We want to do the right thing for our valued iPhone customers. We apologize for disappointing some of you, and we are doing our best to live up to your high expectations of Apple.

Steve Jobs
Apple CEO

[Via Apple]

Damn right you are. We love you, Steve. Sorry for doubting you!

What an awesome company! This is surreal.

time for siggie change for concerned,aint aryayush?

LOL! Yeah, certainly.

My signature also needs a change - it should be four industries quite soon.

good move by Apple..but why only 100$..they should even offer 200$ credit.

but anyway......anything for free is always welcomed.

They have used an extremely cool and exclusive phone for two and a half months already. If someone complains even now (and I don't think there are going to be (m)any), they are just being extremely whiny.

Holy crap, this is unbelievable! I saw the story on digg when it had twelve diggs. I immediately posted it here and then clicked on the 'digg' button on the story. From 4 comments to 120; from 12 to 920 diggs - in just a matter of minutes! Like I said, Holy Crap!!

Good move, but Apple knows how to keep the money to themselves.

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

So, I m not getting $200 back, but instead $100 which I can use only to buy Apple products.

I wonder, isn't Apple still ruthless.

gx_saurav said:
Good move, but Apple knows how to keep the money to themselves.

Of course they do. They're a business; a corporation. It is all about the money for most.
Fortunately for us, Apple customers, Apple likes to keep us happy while they make money. No one whose opinion is even remotely important is complaining.

gx_saurav said:
So, I m not getting $200 back, but instead $100 which I can use only to buy Apple products.

Apple Stores (both the retail ones and the online version) house a whole host of non-Apple goods and accessories.

To quote a commenter on digg - "Quityer*****in!"

o! so now apple does it so its business if ms does something for its business objectives its unethical ... amazing logic ...

tum karo toh chamatakar, hum karein toh balatkar

I, for one, almost never term Microsoft's business practices unethical. In fact, I have, time and again, expressed my appreciation for the fact that they can wrap a load of crap in tinfoil and sell it to Queen Elizabeth as earings!

"wrap a load of crap in tinfoil and sell it to Queen Elizabeth as earings!" - na. thats apple .. ms just wraps its stuff in plastic

aryayush said:
they can wrap a load of crap in tinfoil and sell it to Queen Elizabeth as earings!

Like iMav said, its Apple whose products look pretty according to u

LOL! You guys need some English lessons. It is the "load of crap" that was supposed to be the subject, not what it was wrapped in! :lol:

aryayush said:
What an awesome company! This is surreal.

I'm at loss of words, literally!

You are an ultimate consumer, a mere subset of a clinically sane human being. I'll keep an eye on your hedonistic intercourse with materialism - probably a hopeless search for the traces of optimism in this infinite void of ethical nothingness.

Gee, it's just a phone!

Yamaraj said:
Gee, it's just a phone!

For me & u its a phone, for Macboys, its he solution to every human problem.

Its an iPhone, a mobile phone for $400 without software installation capability, without JAVA, without IM, video recording, bluetooth file transfer, WiFi sync, without any removable battery....its a phone & it sux at being a phone.

Let the truth be revealed about Macboys

gx_saurav said:
For me & u its a phone, for Macboys, its he solution to every human problem.

Its an iPhone, a mobile phone for $400 without software installation capability, without JAVA, without IM, video recording, bluetooth file transfer, WiFi sync, without any removable battery....its a phone & it sux at being a phone.

Let the truth be revealed about Macboys

Completely agreed with you.I dont know why Apple Co. has illusion that they will rule the world in any field they enter.

the illusion is not with the company ... its with the macboys

and apple makes use of this fact to its advantage

1st Apple makes there die hard fans buy iPhone for $600. Approx $300 more then the original production price, meaning they were making 100% profit per unit, thats even more then what pepsi makes

Then they reduce the cost to $400, making fools of all early adapters. $200 in 2 months, thats the fastest price cut ever...this means that Apple was already making lots of profit on $600 iPhone & they are still making with $400, about $100.

Now Apple is giving $100 Gift Coupon which u can only use to buy stuff from Apple store.....

Lolz...who is benefiting here? Apple or the customer.....even if we buy a Microsoft keyboard from Apple store, who is getting the profit? Microsoft or Apple.

If people use this to buy "Upgrade to Leopard", still Apple is making profit & well, they will then say "Leopard sold XXXXX copies" counting this upgrade packages too

well price cut happen always ........
but giving $100 cradit..............only apple can do that thing...............

contactpraven2001 said:
well price cut happen always ........
but giving $100 cradit..............only apple can do that thing...............

Which you can only use in an Apple story, so u r again paying the same money only to Apple. They still have that $100

whats the point iphones not here anyways
and sadly its not available where im getting it either so i am sticking with the k810i

gx_saurav said:
1st Apple makes there die hard fans buy iPhone for $600. Approx $300 more then the original production price, meaning they were making 100% profit per unit, thats even more then what pepsi makes

Then they reduce the cost to $400, making fools of all early adapters. $200 in 2 months, thats the fastest price cut ever...this means that Apple was already making lots of profit on $600 iPhone & they are still making with $400, about $100.

Now Apple is giving $100 Gift Coupon which u can only use to buy stuff from Apple store.....

Lolz...who is benefiting here? Apple or the customer.....even if we buy a Microsoft keyboard from Apple store, who is getting the profit? Microsoft or Apple.

If people use this to buy "Upgrade to Leopard", still Apple is making profit & well, they will then say "Leopard sold XXXXX copies" counting this upgrade packages too

Oh really? Makes a load of sense.

My sister bought a Nokia N90 a few days after it was released for Rs. 32,000. After one and a half month, the price fell to Rs. 24,000. That's $197 in approximately two months. She cried, cursed, shouted, complained at Nokia stores (while I made fun of her for buying such a crap phone!)... no $100 store credit or an online apology from the CEO of Nokia for her.

Apple only looked bad because they have set high standards for themselves. We expect Apple to be better than other companies. Nokia does something wrong, no one blinks an eyelid. We are used to crap. Apple does something, the whole world goes insane. Because we expect better from them and by this letter and $100 store credit, Apple has proved, yet again, that they deserve that kind of devotion.

This is the last I'm speaking on this subject. No point banging my head against a wall.

I know I said that was the end of it but I just came across this article on Apple Matters and couldn't resist post it here:

The first thing we need to understand is Apple’s pricing. Apple, and in fact the great majority of businesses, don’t price products based on the cost of producing said product.

This is plainly apparent when looking at the cost of MacBooks. The black MacBook commands a $150 premium over the equivalent white MacBook for no other reason than people prefer, and will pay more money for, a black colored MacBook. For some that is a reason to be outraged, the black MacBook and white MacBook perform exactly the same, why would Apple charge a premium for nothing more than an added dash of carbon black in the plastic manufacturing process? These people clearly don’t understand how businesses price products.

The easy thing to think that business prices follow some simplistic formula. If it costs Apple a $1000 dollars to build a computer they should reasonably charge $1500 for said machine. A moment’s reflection is all it takes to convince one that the notion of a cost plus profit pricing scheme is not only simplistic it also isn’t good business.

Imagine you manufacture oven windows. Due to a radical breakthrough you can produce an oven window for $1. Your competitors charge $50 for an oven window. The industry (imagine) requires a million oven windows a year. Where will you price your new oven window? The naive answer is that you’ll charge $1.50 per window. Congrats, you’ve just screwed yourself out of $45,000,000 or so. You would, in fact, charge just slightly less than $50. By pricing your oven slightly below the competition ($47.50) you’ll sell a million windows and rake in $47.5 million. Price your window at $1.50 and you’ll sell a million windows and bring in $1.5 million. The simplistic illustration is an example of profit maximization, businesses don’t try to charge enough to “get by” they charge as much as the consumers are willing to pay. Apple is no different, the company charges what research indicates consumers are willing to pay. You can get angry about the amount they charge but Apple isn’t in the game to make you feel good.

To the point and accurate.

You can get angry about the amount they charge but Apple isn’t in the game to make you feel good.

That sums it all how much Apple cares for there customars

At least they decided to give away a 100$ credit from the store. One can buy useful accessories for free*

Nice offer btw.... never heard of any other companies giving any type of *bonus before. Apple certainly made its mark.

you can buy a apple ipod shuffle with that i think

^^^^ Its better to buy an upgrade disk to Leopard. Shuffle sux in front of Sandisk Clip

dude almost everything apple sucks for you

entrana said:
you can buy a apple ipod shuffle with that i think

Even if they buy something worth more than $100, they still get the store credit so they are not restricted to thinking below that mark.

He he good news

... but no thanks... coz i dont have an iPhone

gx_saurav said:
Now Apple is giving $100 Gift Coupon which u can only use to buy stuff from Apple store.....

Lolz...who is benefiting here? Apple or the customer.....even if we buy a Microsoft keyboard from Apple store, who is getting the profit? Microsoft or Apple.

You know what? I'll be happy with the $100 coupon. If you're interested in Apple stuffs, it would be for you as well.

gx_saurav said:
If people use this to buy "Upgrade to Leopard", still Apple is making profit & well, they will then say "Leopard sold XXXXX copies" counting this upgrade packages too

My MacBook Pro comes with Tiger. Usually Apple offers the Leopard upgrade for $9.95 (CD/shipping cost apparently) to those that buy a MacBook Pro within 60 days before Leopard.

Does Microsoft do like that?

nice siggy

but the second adjective is wrong

I believe thats a good business practice by apple.. Tho it can easily do that as they already get a premium price for their products..