So, now that early iPhone adopters got slapped in the face...

[CLiDE FTW!!1]

Well, since Apple decided to drop the price, an abundance of angry early iPhone adopters have been calling into Apple and complaining about the unexpected price drop. Here's what people were saying:

 

"Apple is giving us the cold shoulder. AT&T and Mac Genius' both said that there wouldn't be a price drop 'for at least a year', and so I went ahead and bought an iPhone. No more than 30 days later, Apple decides to drop the price $200. I've owned Mac computers since the late 80's, and Apple has lost a very loyal customer"

 

"Apple basically gave us the message to wait for a few months when they release a new product and expect a 30% price drop"

 

"I waited in line for hours when it was first released, had I knew that the iPhone was both readily available and cheaper 90 days later, I wouldn't have wasted my time."

 

"I bought my iPhone 15 days ago, and I just heard about the news today. So, Apple is basically saying HAHA to me? This is like having a baby by accident and overpaying for child support. Very unprofessional, Apple."

 

As you can tell, people are pissed. Sure, we all expected a reasonable price drop of about $50 within the first year, but this is ridiculous. How could Apple do this to their loyal user base?

 

Now Apple's message board is flooded with angry customers wanting a reimbursement. This is how I see it: Apple is punishing it's earlier adopters with a $200 surcharge, and rewarding fence sitters for not buying their product at launch.

 

Plus they're soaking customers now for adding custom ringtones, which means they have to buy a song on iTunes, and then pay to have it customized.

 

How can you buy products from such an unorganized company? They couldn't even get Leopard out on time.

 

What's your opinion on all of this?

[Azurael]

Sounds like an angry, senseless rant to me. Bye.

 

And incidentally by "unorganised" (which isn't a word) - what do you mean; OK, Leopard has been delayed. I can't see anything else in your post supporting this claim.

[CLiDE FTW!!1]

Sounds like an angry, senseless rant to me. Bye.

 

And incidentally by "unorganised" (which isn't a word) - what do you mean; OK, Leopard has been delayed. I can't see anything else in your post supporting this claim.

http://webster.com/dictionary/unorganized

If it's in Webster, it's a word.

 

And please, please, please tell me how Apple is NOT unorganized when they said, "Well, you'll be able to add custom ringtones sometime this month". Sometime this MONTH? What the hell kind of company gives such a broad release date? An unorganized one. When you call your local moving company to book a date to move, do they say, "Oh, we'll be by sometime this month"? No, because thats unacceptable, and they would be fired on the spot.

 

It's not just an angry rant, its a FACT that people are complaining about this. Apple is not GOD, it is a corporation, just as Microsoft, Sony, etc.

 

If you cannot put up with a little negativity towards Apple through all the positive that is portrayed on this board, you should add a little avatar to your account that reads, "Apple Fanboy". Because it's a shame that you can't stomach that Apple is not perfect, and when someone complains about their ethics, you seem to throw your defenses up and disregard their opinion. How very inhumane.

[rathalos]

man, y do u rant about wanting to show off to ur friends the new cool iPhone u got early ahead... thats the price u pay for wanting to show off early... y dun u complain about M$ putting vista up at a price of $600 (u can buy a few iPhones with that) and dragged it like years.. whats wrong with leopard being dragged a fraction of what M$ has done?

[CLiDE FTW!!1]

man, y do u rant about wanting to show off to ur friends the new cool iPhone u got early ahead... thats the price u pay for wanting to show off early... y dun u complain about M$ putting vista up at a price of $600 (u can buy a few iPhones with that) and dragged it like years.. whats wrong with leopard being dragged a fraction of what M$ has done?

That's a valid point, paying the premium to have the latest. But a $200 - 90 day premium? It would be understandable if it was a $50 drop after 6 months, but being out $200 within a 3 month time frame is unacceptable.

 

I don't complain about Vista because this is primarily a Macintosh-related board. Sure Vista is expensive (and no, you can't buy a few iPhones for that price), but they MS didn't propose a 30% price drop within 3 months of it's release.

 

That's like you going out to buy a Hummer straight off the lot from GM for $80,000 and then finding out that GM had cut the price nearly $25,000

Sure, it may not be the same dollar amount, but the principal is still there; 30% is 30%.

 

I'm not ranting about my personal experience with the iPhone, I'm speaking on behalf of all those unlucky people who opt-out to buy their iPhones early, and then get run over by Apple not even a fiscal quarter later. There are extremely pissed people out there because of this (nearly 1 million, in fact), and Apple should address this, or risk the image of Apple as a whole.

[rathalos]

well, i think there's nothing we can do about it.. maybe the extra $200 was royalties to AT&T for all you know...

 

Maybe Vista sales will shoot up if M$ does decide to drop their prices by 30%... maybe more computer manufacturers will embrace vista more... LOL... but then again... M$ has to recoup their losses for doing nothing and wasting money...

 

well, i think there are some things which apple couldnt do about.. i think apple tried its best to lower prices as much as they could.. for example, the SR MBP i got was actually $200 cheaper than the earlier models of MBP... and it was direct off apple online store.. with the price drop came many other benefits...

[Azurael]

http://webster.com/dictionary/unorganized

If it's in Webster, it's a word.

http://www.oup.com/elt/catalogue/teachersi...ookup?cc=global

 

If you say so. It's not in the OED, which I regard as somewhat more definitive than Webster. Then again, presumably, you mis-spell colour, aluminium and numerous other words too, so I suppose it's just one among many crimes against the English language.

 

And please, please, please tell me how Apple is NOT unorganized when they said, "Well, you'll be able to add custom ringtones sometime this month". Sometime this MONTH? What the hell kind of company gives such a broad release date? An unorganized one. When you call your local moving company to book a date to move, do they say, "Oh, we'll be by sometime this month"? No, because thats unacceptable, and they would be fired on the spot.

 

Really, because pretty much everybody in the computer industry does it, and most of them miss a hell of a lot more deadlines than Apple. To be honest, you're getting a new feature that wasn't on the spec when you bought it, so don't {censored} or maybe they'll just introduce a new product, at a new price, with the new feature, and won't bother upgrading existing devices.

 

It's not just an angry rant, its a FACT that people are complaining about this. Apple is not GOD, it is a corporation, just as Microsoft, Sony, etc.

 

I totally agree that people are complaining. However Apple, like any other company in the capitalist world, is entitled to amend their prices as they wish within reason and the law. I'm sure numerous people have purchased numerous products prior to price drops and moaned about it afterward. It's the nature of our economy. Like it, lump it, or start a revolution. The choice is yours. Complaining won't get you anywhere.

 

If you cannot put up with a little negativity towards Apple through all the positive that is portrayed on this board, you should add a little avatar to your account that reads, "Apple Fanboy". Because it's a shame that you can't stomach that Apple is not perfect, and when someone complains about their ethics, you seem to throw your defenses up and disregard their opinion. How very inhumane.

 

Err. OK, but I don't really see where that came from. I don't think I stood up for Apple. I merely pointed out that your post read like an irate, ranting monologue and not the voice of a rational person.

[Lkr]

http://www.apple.com/hotnews/openiphoneletter/

[cbmkgd]

http://www.oup.com/elt/catalogue/teachersi...ookup?cc=global

 

If you say so. It's not in the OED, which I regard as somewhat more definitive than Webster.

It is in the OED, both pronunciations (although you get both only with the -ized search).

un•organ•ized (BrE also -ised)

And so is color, btw.

 

Evidently, OED will favor British spelling, but will also give the American one, which is equally acceptable.

[jgrimes80]

Unacceptable to drop the price so quickly so much?

 

Okay...

 

I think Apple is going well beyond satifactory means offering $100 in store credit. However, I find the "outrage" due to a dramatic price drop to be misplaced. Those people have only themselves to blame. They spent their money; they know the value of their money. Not Apple

 

Especially on something so cutting edge... why wouldn't you think the price would drop?!

 

I remember buying a new model Mustang in late 1998 - 1999 Black Cobra Mustang and the first one to hit a lot in a 300mi radius of me. Want to know how much I spent vs. the guy who waited a few months. In hindsight, yes I should have waited... but I'm not going to say **** Ford! **** you dealership! I spent MY money on some I wanted.

[CLiDE FTW!!1]

http://www.oup.com/elt/catalogue/teachersi...ookup?cc=global

 

If you say so. It's not in the OED, which I regard as somewhat more definitive than Webster. Then again, presumably, you mis-spell colour, aluminium and numerous other words too, so I suppose it's just one among many crimes against the English language.

un•organ•ized (BrE also -ised) /nnazd; NAmE r/ adj.

1 (of workers) without a trade/labor union or other organization to represent or support them

(EDIT: Or as what cbmkgd said.)

 

Really, because pretty much everybody in the computer industry does it, and most of them miss a hell of a lot more deadlines than Apple. To be honest, you're getting a new feature that wasn't on the spec when you bought it, so don't {censored} or maybe they'll just introduce a new product, at a new price, with the new feature, and won't bother upgrading existing devices.

I totally agree that people are complaining. However Apple, like any other company in the capitalist world, is entitled to amend their prices as they wish within reason and the law. I'm sure numerous people have purchased numerous products prior to price drops and moaned about it afterward. It's the nature of our economy. Like it, lump it, or start a revolution. The choice is yours. Complaining won't get you anywhere.

Err. OK, but I don't really see where that came from. I don't think I stood up for Apple. I merely pointed out that your post read like an irate, ranting monologue and not the voice of a rational person.

 

But wait, if complaining doesn't get us anywhere, then why does Steve say this:

 

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. [...] 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. - Steve Jobs (http://www.apple.com/hotnews/openiphoneletter/)

 

This is an excellent example of when complaining DOES get you somwhere. In fact, it gets you alot more than if you didn't.

 

Anyways, this was very thoughtful of Steve/Apple to add this incentive for earlier buyers. Good on Apple.

[Azurael]

Consider yourself very lucky. I didn't get a rebate when Intel decreased the price of my CPU by a large sum, for example.

 

Anyway, are you done now? Can we let this thread die?

[CLiDE FTW!!1]

Consider yourself very lucky. I didn't get a rebate when Intel decreased the price of my CPU by a large sum, for example.

 

Anyway, are you done now? Can we let this thread die?

Hey, It's not our fault that you didn't complain enough for a rebate.

 

I think this thread should continue to be viewable by other iPhone customers, so they too are aware of the rebate available to them. (That, or, as the mods see fit)

[Headrush69]

Sour grapes.

This happens all the time for new technology and usually you get nothing back. Hell, doesn't even have to be new technology. Ever have the bad luck of buying a video card only to have new products released shortly after?

 

Obviously it can be frustrating to see people getting a better deal on something you just bought, but obviously you thought the iPhone was good enough to pony up $599 for originally, is it somehow not as worthwhile now just because it is cheaper?

[CLiDE FTW!!1]

Sour grapes.

This happens all the time for new technology and usually you get nothing back. Hell, doesn't even have to be new technology. Ever have the bad luck of buying a video card only to have new products released shortly after?

 

Obviously it can be frustrating to see people getting a better deal on something you just bought, but obviously you thought the iPhone was good enough to pony up $599 for originally, is it somehow not as worthwhile now just because it is cheaper?

Well, the video card example is relevant to the technology aspect, but does not compare in real term numbers.

 

ATi or nVidia are lucky to sell 50,000 of a certain video card (and that's a VERY big number for a certain model), where as Apple has sold nearly 1 million iPhones.

 

Of course you're going to hear alot more complaints about a right-after-launch 30%+ price drop on a successful product.

[Colonel Ingus]

As you can tell, people are pissed.

To be more precise, morons are pissed If AT&T said that there would be no price drop, then they should be whining to AT&T. If someone is crazy enough to camp out and wait in line just to be the 'first one' to have 'a product' then that's an ego issue and that should be on them, not the company making the product. No one held a gun to their head forcing them to rush out to buy anything Obviously advertising works incredibly well with this group of campers. As it was already pointed out, especially on something so new and cutting edge... why wouldn't you think the price would drop like a rock?! Mark it up to a learning experience and swallow

[CLiDE FTW!!1]

To be more precise, morons are pissed If AT&T said that there would be no price drop, then they should be whining to AT&T. If someone is crazy enough to camp out and wait in line just to be the 'first one' to have 'a product' then that's an ego issue and that should be on them, not the company making the product. No one held a gun to their head forcing them to rush out to buy anything Obviously advertising works incredibly well with this group of campers. As it was already pointed out, especially on something so new and cutting edge... why wouldn't you think the price would drop like a rock?! Mark it up to a learning experience and swallow

The Mac Geniuses at the Apple Stores also informed customers that there wasn't a supposed to a price drop for a year, so I've been told by several iPhone owners.

 

Okay, but this is enough bickering towards me, as I'm merely an active messenger.

 

The point is, Apple either refunded customers under the price protection, or gave a $100 store credit.

 

I hope that this thread is useful to previous iPhone owners.

[Colonel Ingus]

Just wondering... why couldn't they have just taken their refund and bought the cheaper version?

[vectran]

But then the early adopters got to be the first group of people to have the coolest phone in the world. Apple have done this for ages - get used to it!

[Blue_Mockingbird]

They are making some amends for people outside the 14 day window.

 

This is an incredibly fast markdown, for a pretty neat product. (Friend has one).

I'm guessing that being tied to AT&T for 5 years & the response for phones haven't been as great as they'd have liked.

If you can't bargain for a more affordable service provider - they really got you by the unmentionables.

 

Otherwise, you might as well have boughtthe new iPod instead. (Which is what you have - but with smaller storage, if you tire of AT&T, or can't afford your contract).

Then, there's the Zune being dropped $200 on the same day as the new iPods.

 

I suppose that has the product markdown cycle sped up considerably. If they can make money after a $200 drop - then the darn things wereseriously overpriced to begin with.

Or they have recouped start up costs.

At any rate - I wouldn't buy one anytime soon. Apple has gotten too good at playing the Microsoft game.

Some of the business practices are not endearing, fortunately for them the products tend to still be pretty great, but they are eroding the "feelgood" people associate with Apple.

 

This is like having a baby by accident and overpaying for child support. Very unprofessional, Apple."

Hmmm. "Having a baby by ACCIDENT? And overpaying child support."

 

A bit of a mixed metaphor that doesn't hang together, if you go back & look at it. Then, if you apply it to the phone ---> you bought one BY ACCIDENT? LOL.

Unprofessional there too, but I appreciate the feeling of getting screwed.

[Numberzz]

apple said sometime this week, not this month and im sure they are trying to get more companies to get their songs available as ringtones.

[bxsci(macuser)]

sometime this month isn't a vague anyway.... at all...

Sometime this month though not giving a specific date, hour or minute says it is coming within the next 30 days or less...

vague is if in 2002 microsoft would have said "were coming out with a new OS sometime in the next decade.

[Numberzz]

sometime this month isn't a vague anyway.... at all...

Sometime this month though not giving a specific date, hour or minute says it is coming within the next 30 days or less...

vague is if in 2002 microsoft would have said "were coming out with a new OS sometime in the next decade.

i hate to say this, but vague is also "spring counts as october" but im sure the iphone was a very hard product to make

[RedSox]

man, y do u rant about wanting to show off to ur friends the new cool iPhone u got early ahead... thats the price u pay for wanting to show off early... y dun u complain about M$ putting vista up at a price of $600 (u can buy a few iPhones with that) and dragged it like years.. whats wrong with leopard being dragged a fraction of what M$ has done?

 

Exactly - this is the tech biz. What I think it is is that the Apple fan base of old, being replace by the new fan base, isn't used to seeing new products so fast, so often, instead of 3 years for a new product. (I bought a MBP 2.2 LED due to this group by the way) and the technology is going to get better and faster.

 

Barefeats has the new iMac faster than the MBP (hard to belive as I tested 6 with FCP and all of them choked okay stuttered after adding one or two transitions, yet barefeats says its faster, perhaps in rendering) but the MPB beats it with REAL TIME FX hands down. Throw in a 7200 HD, Express eSATA raid two HD and you have a workstation that flat out beats most anything out there right now and can drive a 1900x1440 (except the mac pro).

 

But I expect the new Mac Pro to have 16 cores soon and the $1999 (which is what I am waiting for) will be the 8 core and use the non ECC, then I will but into. Till now, sweetwater used to call the G4 the audio workstation on wheels. Spare me. Far from it. Now though with two cores at 2.2, yeah, it flys and its pretty fast.

 

Now all APPLE really has to do is this to REALLY grab the market.

 

MAC PRO 32 core Supreme

Mac Pro 16 Premium

Mac Pro Standard 8 core $1999

 

iMac 4 Core $1799

MBP 4 or 8 core higher end GPU $1999

 

Mac Mini 2 Core/Ati 1900XT $499 and they will fly off the shelf.

 

Then comes the nano phone, small, 16 button in sets of 8, 4GB. For those that want a phone, net, voice recording and music, not for the movies and small in size.

 

I predict with new OS soon, we will see **FCP and new Logic geared at creators. Why? 64 bits will be faster just with the change in OS.

FWIW, I installed VISTA 64, no drivers for my HIGH END FW AUDIO GEAR (almost as much as MBP) and it was 64 bit. The funny thing is it was proven 32 bit vista was much faster than XP and the 64 bit version was not.

 

Whereas I expect at least 25% increase in plugins (synth's, drum machines, extra CPU overhead, with a simple OS change). Which I will receive free.

 

Will let you know when I get it (the real copy, from Apple, not the one floating around usenet and bittorent. LOL

 

**Spoke with someone who SAW the new FCP (yes, they just released one in April, but this is NEW NEW NEW all the way around, not iLife 08, but not old workflow of FCP......and very APPLE as in intuitive and easy to use but deep. One can hope that LOGIC offers the same with a KICK Arse DRUM MODULE and GUITAR SIM. As they (APPLE) are getting pretty good at it. The SUITE iWork is done, so I think this is the next logical step.

 

 

NEW OS, New FCP, NEW LOGIC which all uses new 64 bits. The other software won't matter (less Photoshop) as much as these, as audio/video gets the biggest boost with 64 bits.

 

Then the new Machines.

 

Then the new Nano phones.

 

Then and only then, maybe, a small, test bed of the public OS, by highly unlikely.

[f^sh]

Have to lol at the OP. Can't be bothered saying much as it's a mindless, lack of thought rant.

 

People complained, Apple responded with a rebate. How often does a large international do that for their customers or give a s*&t about how their customers feel? You wanted to be one of the first to get an iPhone, we call that a 'Technoweenie'. Me and my partner want one, but we're waiting for Rev2.