What’s your take on the iPhone price cut?
Fair game. But the people that they pissed off are their loyal customers - how much will that hurt in the future?
Companies are doing this all the time. How many times have you heard on the radio or watched on TV some great ad that ended with "Available to new customers only” Nothing pisses me off more and I don’t know how they get away with it.
Nice to see the usual stockjocks here. There is something wrong with APPL here. At the end of the day this is a fashion company. And when fashion companies slash prices (okay 200 smackers off is no slashing) somethin is wrong: either their products go out of fashion or they cannot sell enough. I think the problem is the latter. The new iPod is so right, but I think that APPL has hurt its most loyal customers. In the future folks are likely to wait for prices to go down, before flocking to the Apple store to buy the latest gizmo.
I think apple sucked out as much premium as they could from the early adopters. A big part of this cut has to do with the itouch. Everyone knew about the iphone 6 months in advance of its actual debut. Everyone speculated about the itouch, but know one new anything definitive. I believe a lot of people would still keep their regular phone if they could get an ipod with the same interface and features but without the calling feature. There was nothing special about the hardware to make phone calls on the iphone. Now the iphone is priced at just a small premium to the itouch (makes sense in a product line). I also have a feeling they’re clearing inventory out for a release of an updated iphone using 3g, at least I hope so. Now, I would be pissed as hell if I were an early adopter. This is the main reason why I don’t buy apple products. I know technology is always changing, but I would like to buy a product that will stay at the top of a product lineup for more than 6 or so months. Competition is to fierce to allow this I suppose.
IMHO Appl is just trying to use the usual tactics of cell phone companies… dont forget that in the cellphone market, slashing prices is very very common…hell, i have paid $200 for Nokias which i can get for $0 with contract today… the only thing surprised me is that this announcement came from apple rather than At&t …
I beleive that while the announcement came too soon, this is a strategic move to introduce a newer 3G based iPhone with greater capacity that would appeal to the European market for its 4Q launch in time for the holiday season. Presumably, this would be priced at $499. The price reduction of the 8GB model was designed to open up a competitive price slot. Apple would not be able to appeal to the masses with a phone that was priced above $599. Additionally, when Apple introduces the iPhone to the Asian market in 2008, you can almost bet with certainty that these phones would also be 3G - AND - would most likely be unlocked. In Asia, the idea of locking in users to service contracts simply does not exist. People can buy phones from a number of stores that sells phones and take them to a carrier to get them activated. Phone subsidies do not exist there - in most markets, anyway. I beleive these phones will be priced at around $599, and would most definately find its way to the US and other markets. In order to maintain its relationship with AT&T, what Apple has done was to create an artificial subsidy for the iPhone by lowering the price to $399, because they know that when the iPhone comes out in Asia, it will be unlocked, and these unlocked phones will find its way to the US market. I always buy my phones from Asia, because I don’t like the idea of getting tied up with a service provider here. I don’t mind paying a premium for it because I travel quite a bit, and I don’t want to be paying roaming charges. I need to be able to pop in a SIM card whereever I go. I also don’t like AT&T anyway, but that’s another story.
So do you travel directly to Asia and buy the phone there or do you get it via other means (ebay etc)? I am in the market for a new phone in Europe and it would be nice to have one and not two (us one also) – just change cards.
The cut was too much, too soon- they did a good job offering rebates right away though. People hadn’t had their phones for 3 mos and they cut it $200- it’s a bit insane and you kind of feel used or “played.” They should’ve cut it $100 w/ the new ipod release, then another $100 in mid November before the Holiday season. I went in the Apple store yesterday to pick up a shuffle (don’t knock me, that’s all I need- something to listen to when I work out and $79 is as much I plan on paying) and jeez it is like a cult in there. I love Apple products, as a matter of fact I’m using the black macbook right now but jeez some of these Apple fans are insane. I think a lot of them are suckers…it shows how simple minded we are as humans…and also how they’ve mastered the art of branding by gathering followers and turning most of them into zombies.
TPain88 - agreed, but they do have the coolest products…by far. Saks - you can get it either way. They sell on ebay for a premium however.
perhaps its just cause I follow aapl closely, but did anyone not see this coming? All they did was lower their profit margin to the company average by my estimate. I purchased one knowing they were going to cut the price soon. I figured it would come in early November but whatever. Holiday sales will be huge, iPod touch is killer for those how don’t want the phone. Sent from my iPhone
I don’t want the iPhone now - I will get it eventually. In the meantime, I have my order in for a 16GB iPod touch.
Can I pre-order my 16G touch for pick up at the store? This way I know I wont have to worry about them running out (they apparently didnt on iPhone, but you never know).
They hit their million phone target. I wonder if they’ll do a tablet pc?
my great great great great great great great great grandfather is still pissed off over tulip bulb prices.
pimp Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > TPain88 - agreed, but they do have the coolest > products…by far. > > Saks - you can get it either way. They sell on > ebay for a premium however. I think apple made a huge mistake, 7 weeks after the launch you cut the phone by 33%? That’s very poor business practices, even if you back stepped into a $100 off coupon. All that coupon is is another way to get people to buy more overpriced apple crap. Personally, Apple is the Bose/Monster of the computer world. They take what everybody else does, put a slick packaging around it and sell it for a massive premium. The iPhone is utter trash, no 3G, small space, limited functionality compared to most pocketPCs, and all for a premium. I purchased my PPC-6700 with a 2-year contract with Sprint for $75, it can do much more than the iTrash. People buy Bose/Monster trash all of the time, yet are ignorant to the reality of the situation. All three companies sell the same stuff for a huge premium with little to no (or even negative) value in products. Only suckers fall for the snake oil tactics.
Spierce… go play with the iPhone. It’s not that bad.
virginCFAhooker Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Spierce… go play with the iPhone. It’s not > that bad. I have, I didn’t like it. It’s not that it isn’t sexy, even hookers are sexy. It’s just shallow and unfulfilling. Most of the people who think it’s a great tool are those who don’t know about other tools. (not speaking to you directly, but these are teh questions I ask) Wow, you can use Wifi? Welcome to 2 years ago, mine did it then. You can load webpages? Wow, at less than 150kbps, mine can do it at 1mbps, 8x faster! You can play music? So can mine and I can get unlimited 4GB cards. Can you do 3rd party GPS? Mine can do it quite easily. Do you have a full tactile keyboard that doesn’t take up most of the screen? I do. Do you have a battery that last for 2 weeks without charging with frequent talk and data? One that can last through 3 days of almost 24 hours of data usage? Does yours cost $50 and is easily replacable? Does yours have millions of programs written for it? Apple sold the whole thing as some type of new invention. Most people i talk to think so. once I show them my PPC, which isn’t as sexy but many times more powerful, they wonder how Apple can get away with such things. It’s because people like to think that because they are buying something expensive, they are buying something exclusive. It is a perfect match for people who think Bose’s speakers are worth the money, or think that Monster cables actually do more than a regular RatShack cable. There are better items out there, often for less than what those marketing companies sell them for. The value just isn’t there.
I think it was brilliant on all fronts. 1. Suck out a premium from the die-hard Apple group that will pay it. Sell 1m phones at this price. Receive $200m in extra revenue. 2. After demand starts to fall, lower the price to a range that a normal person would consider paying (on target with Treo, Blackberry, etc) 3. Tick off your loyal customer base, but placate them with $100 in store credit. They love you again for “bailing them out”, but you are out only your cost equivalent of $100 retail price. 4. Add on top that the people with the store credit are your loyalists that are likely going to use that money to buy a new ipod, which will just bring in more revenue. Brilliant.
How many people would’ve bought iPhones at the beginning if the iPod touch was available?