Patrick Klepek
furiously molesting tim burton
MIMIC said:
Great spin! Would read again. A++
iPhone - Official Thread
- Thread starter imastalker co.
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Great spin! Would read again. A++
What mimic said is true - they aren't giving you $100 back of the $200 you lost - it's going back to Apple for other products. So Apple aren't losing that $100, but a chunk of profit of whatever you buy from them.
But still, you never actually lost $200 - you paid it, happy you were getting what you paid for. I know it sucks, but that's just the way the tech industry can work. Had the same price drop happened 6 months down the track, you'd still get the same people whining who bought it 2 months prior - there'd just be less of them.
At any rate:
$599 - Early adopters
$399 - Early adopters whine, hits news EVERY WHERE
$100 coupon - people happy again
Apple didn't pay a cent for advertising the price drop, but everyone now knows about it, and people are pretty happy in the end regardless - genius.
But still, you never actually lost $200 - you paid it, happy you were getting what you paid for. I know it sucks, but that's just the way the tech industry can work. Had the same price drop happened 6 months down the track, you'd still get the same people whining who bought it 2 months prior - there'd just be less of them.
At any rate:
$599 - Early adopters
$399 - Early adopters whine, hits news EVERY WHERE
$100 coupon - people happy again
Apple didn't pay a cent for advertising the price drop, but everyone now knows about it, and people are pretty happy in the end regardless - genius.
SuperPac
Member
mrkgoo said:
Fine by me. It's a good faith thing, really. They didn't have to do anything, they did, and I'm appreciative of that.
Hmm, no. I mean, it'd be as if Sony had decided to lower the 60GB PS3 price to $399 right after New Year's -- the loyal fans that bought it day one would've been effed over. (And anyone who bought a 20GB would've been completely screwed.) That's essentially what this felt like. Yes technology moves down in price over time but components don't get cheaper after barely two months of availability. Six months down the line I really wouldn't have cared. Had this even come in November I would've been fine with it. A drop this drastic this quick is what burned me.
StrikerObi
Member
This is all I need to be happy. I don't care if the money goes from Apple to me back to Apple. I'm just glad they recognized the burn and made any effort. The fact that I'm getting $100 is very nice. Now... what to buy with it. I'm thinking a pair of Shure E2Cs.
SuperPac said:
I guess I can see that. I know I would feel burned, but really, they're not actually burning you - burning you would be increasing the price, and then charging people who bought it early. This is more like... rewarding the late (ish) adopters.
Funny how timing is everything.
Particle Physicist
between a quark and a baryon
mrkgoo said:
not really. when you use that $100, they'll be giving you something for it. so instead of giving you the cash back, you are getting $100 equivalent of software and/or hardware
can you use it for anything in the apple store? they sell third party stuff there.
So I got my TTY Adapter for my iPhone in the mail today and dumbass me thinking, "Yeah, now I can use it with any line in jack!"
No. Totally fooled. Damn, I felt dumb. So I called Apple today to make a return and they said it would cost more to ship it back then your refund so they are just going to give me my money back and let me keep it. I ain't got to do jack shit.
Awesome!
Plus 2 now Apple! You on a role!
No. Totally fooled. Damn, I felt dumb. So I called Apple today to make a return and they said it would cost more to ship it back then your refund so they are just going to give me my money back and let me keep it. I ain't got to do jack shit.
Awesome!
Plus 2 now Apple! You on a role!
miyamotofreak
Banned
I'm guessing most of the $100 money is going toward Leopard, Macbooks, iTMS, Mac Minis ($500 is good), .mac, iWork, iLife, and Airports. So yeah Apple isn't exactly crying about it.
Kung Fu Jedi
Member
xsarien said:
Of course, but if I was going to buy something from Apple anyway, I'm still getting $100 back, so I'm still doing ok. Yes, Apple is getting money out of us, but guess what? They were probably going to get some anyway.
Trying to spin the fact that Apple is trying to do something to make up the price cut up to the early adopters is just sad. A good company listens to their customers, knows when they did something wrong, and tries to make up for it.
Kung Fu Jedi
Member
xsarien said:
Except in this case, Apple knows they're in the wrong. That isn't always the case, and I can't think of another time in recent history that they've done anything like this to their customer base that would cause them to throw tantrums.
Particle Physicist
between a quark and a baryon
xsarien said:
and they just give you imaginary stuff? i dont get it.
Kung Fu Jedi said:
No one's stating that this isn't the first time they've dropped a price this drastically in such a short period of time, but I find it pretty stunning that people actually expect Apple to keep the price higher than the company wants it to be, going against all rational business reasons, because a vocal - and probably fraction - of the launch buyers might have a fit about it.
You buy at launch, you pay a premium. If you don't want to feel jilted, wait a few weeks or a few months (something you're better off doing ANYWAY, but that's not the issue.) And, just for the record: $400 is where the price really should've been in the first place. Cell phone technology moves at a whiplash-inducing pace and prices drop like rocks that are tied to lead weights on a planet with twice Earth's gravity.
Kung Fu Jedi
Member
xsarien said:
Even in the Cell Phone industry, a $200 price drop within the first two months of a premium smart phone, is pretty unheard of. I don't think anyone would have complained if it were a $50 or $100 price drop. But $200 is a pretty huge drop such a short time after the release of any product.
Phoenix
Member
xsarien said:
Apple lowered the price on a product in less than a quarter - LESS THAN A QUARTER. The people who got their $100 bucks absolutely deserved it. Apple totally miscalculated the market with their price and feature set - clearly they realize that they needed to do something drastic to meet their numbers for September and people were deservedly right to be completely pissed. If the price dropped in November in time for Christmas, that's one thing - but the sheen hasn't even worn of the initial device shipments so Apple was clearly needing to do something no matter how token.
Kung Fu Jedi said:
I wouldn't go as far as calling it a premium smartphone. It doesn't have the flexibility of Palm, Symbian or Windows Mobile, it's not supported by corporate IT departments in any substantial fashion, and AT&T inexplicably keeping it locked down means that anyone travelling abroad with the thing can't swap out the SIM for a local (and cheaper) carrier.
Not to mention the lack of 3G data, which is going to make the iTunes store a real chore, let me tell you that right now...
Kung Fu Jedi said:
That's generally a bad sign, but now we're kind of deviating from the point.
As Jobs said recently in an interview, "That's technology." All I know is this: If I were among the launch buyers, I wouldn't have raised much of a stink. Yeah, I'd be angry - at myself - for not waiting a bit, but online petitions, calls for class-action lawsuits (what law did they break?), declarations of boycotting (haw!) Apple products?The level of histrionics rivals that of gaming fans finding out their favorite franchise just went [insert system here] exclusive.
StrikerObi
Member
xsarien said:
Well it could be considered premium in other ways. It's a smartphone designed for the consumer, not the enterprise. It trumps anything Palm, Symbian, or WinMobile does in the music, video, and web-browsing departments (save for 3G speed). The lockdowns sure to suck though.
As for the iTunes store... it's called the "iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store" for a reason. I think there is a good possibility that it won't work over EDGE at all, perhaps due to encryption. Anyway, I don't think downloading a 5-7MB song over EDGE would be too terrible if it were possible, it just wouldn't be practically instant like it will be over Wi-Fi.
That's the thing. That's NOT technology. No company has ever done such a drastic price drop ($200 or 1/3 of the price) within 100 days of a product launch, it's just insane. There's no way the cost of parts or manufacturing went down enough that they could trim 1/3 off the retail price. It just shows that the product had a HUGE profit margin. There's nothing wrong with making money, but this price drop is like a slap in the face. It's so much so fast that it's obvious they could have charged $400 at launch and still made a profit. That's why we feel "ripped off". But, they did the smart thing and made right with their best customers, which is much smarter business in the long run.
Kung Fu Jedi
Member
xsarien said:
It is indeed a Premium smartphone even if it is aimed at a different market. It handles media far better tan those other OS's you mention, has more storage than most other smartphones, great Internet options, WiFi, which isn't super common on other phones either, although it is gaining more.
And complaining about a locked phone is just plain stupid. Nearly every phone is locked upon release in the United States. You act like it's common that a phone is released unlocked for International markets, which is totally not true. Sure, there are a few that are marketed as being for the International traveler, but the vast majority of phones released in the States are locked upon release and are unlocked, either by hackers or the company releasing the codes, later down the line. This is not a knock on the iPhone, it's common business in the cell phone industry, much like those price cuts you were touting above.
MIMIC said:
How's that? When has Apple done something similar in the recent past?
SuperPac
Member
Kung Fu Jedi said:
I really find it odd that were so many "quit your whining, crybabies"-type posts around the 'Net at a bunch of the messageboards and apple blogs I go to. As if there's no difference between the natural price reduction of a tech product over time and what Apple did yesterday -- cut the price by 33% nine weeks after launch. (And I love it even more when they feel it necessary to explain that technology lowers in price over time as if those who felt burnt don't understand that.) Somehow I'm not supposed to feel screwed as a consumer when the price changes so drastically so quickly after LAUNCH.
It's be like supporting Shadowrun at launch for $60, then have Microsoft officially change the price to $5 just outside of the range where you'd be able to get the place you bought it at to refund you the difference. You'd feel a little burnt.
xsarien said:I wouldn't go as far as calling it a premium smartphone. It doesn't have the flexibility of Palm, Symbian or Windows Mobile, it's not supported by corporate IT departments in any substantial fashion, and AT&T inexplicably keeping it locked down means that anyone travelling abroad with the thing can't swap out the SIM for a local (and cheaper) carrier.
Not to mention the lack of 3G data, which is going to make the iTunes store a real chore, let me tell you that right now...
That's generally a bad sign, but now we're kind of deviating from the point.
The level of histrionics rivals that of gaming fans finding out their favorite franchise just went [insert system here] exclusive.
It's hardly inexplicable why they went with at&t. They get a cut of every contract andassive concessions in UI control and network usage.
And the itunes store is wifi only, no edge.
Kung Fu Jedi
Member
Phoenix said:
When comparing the iPhone to similar devices prior to launch, that were in a similar price point, there was only one in the bunch that had WiFi. I do know that add-on WiFi cards have been around forever, and as I said, it's gaining ground, as it's in most of the new smartphones coming out now, but until recently, I'm not sure I'd have used the word common, as an out of the box feature.
But yeah, I'll concede that it isn't exactly an iPhone exclusive or anything.
Kung Fu Jedi said:
Distinguish between "handling media better" and wrapping it around a better user experience. With the notable exception of visual voicemail and shoving Safari under the hood, the iPhone didn't bring any other major new functionality to the table. In fact, between the lack of basic text copy/paste, MMS and video recording, an argument can be made that they actually chiseled away at what people expect even from more basic phones.
And yes, WiFi is actually pretty common in your average smartphone.
Kung Fu Jedi said:
1) You can get unlocked phones in the U.S., most cost just as much as a locked iPhone.
2) Even if your GSM phone is carrier locked, a simple request via email can get you the code so you can use a different SIM in the device. There's usually a policy in place to prevent people from getting cheap hardware and leaving the service; AT&T in particular makes you wait about 90 days before they'll give you the code. The problem is that AT&T's attitude seems to heavily imply that they'll never let their customers unlock an iPhone through official channels. Which is weird, because the U.S. copyright office explicitly points out that this is cool under the DMCA and there's no real legal footing to say no under copyright statutes. The point, really, is that phones are locked and the heavily-subsidized price is given to the customer in return. The issue is that the iPhone's price isn't subsidized at all, so where's the rational for locking the device outside of general douchebaggery on the part of Apple and AT&T?
Kung Fu Jedi
Member
xsarien said:
Well, we're really off the original discussion, but, guess what, you can buy unlocked iPhones in the U.S. too if you really want one. As I said earlier, most phones are left to the hackers to unlock for awhile before they codes are provided.
And since 90 days haven't passed yet, how do you know that AT&T won't release the codes? It's just pure speculation at this point. My point is that this is a silly think to knock the iPhone on, as it is already unlocked, and it's not really acting differently than any other NEW cell phones.
People act like it's been out for a long time, but it's barely been two months. That leads to a lot of complains, like the ones about it not being unlocked, and it's the reason why many of us felt burned about the price cut.
aparisi2274
Member
Ok I just got the iphone tonight and I have been setting it up and its been going pretty smooth, except for the e-mail.
I originally had it sync up with my outlook settings, and well that didnt work at all. So I deleted the account it put in the phone and then tried to set it up myself. I put everything in the exact way it should and I tried to send a test message. I keep getting the following error:
Cannont Send Mail
Check the account settings for the outgoing server
"outgoing.verizon.net"
I have the FiOS service in NYC, and I cant for the life of me figure out whats going on... Does anyone else happen to have a FiOS account and have it setup properly in the iphone? Any help would be great.
EDIT: Nevermind... I got it to work...
I originally had it sync up with my outlook settings, and well that didnt work at all. So I deleted the account it put in the phone and then tried to set it up myself. I put everything in the exact way it should and I tried to send a test message. I keep getting the following error:
Cannont Send Mail
Check the account settings for the outgoing server
"outgoing.verizon.net"
I have the FiOS service in NYC, and I cant for the life of me figure out whats going on... Does anyone else happen to have a FiOS account and have it setup properly in the iphone? Any help would be great.
EDIT: Nevermind... I got it to work...
xsarien said:
First of all, better media handling and an amazing interface are the definition of premium for a lot of users, regardless of functionality.
As far as your lock/unlock argument, you're not understanding the basis of Apple's agreement with AT&T.
Apple gets a cut from AT&T for every customer Apple sends them on a sliding scale, every single month. If the rumors I'm hearing about the amount are true, it is a very large sum of money. If the phone is unlocked and you use it on T-Mobile, Apple loses money, as well as At&T. This is a completely unheard of arrangement in the industry, and the other carriers naturally balked at this. AT&T was willing to do it, so long as Apple keeps the phone locked, which is in Apple's best interest anyway.
aparisi2274
Member
ok QQ about txt messages... If I send one to a friend of mine and he sends one back should it pop up with a number next to the SMS box to let me know I have a txt message?
I ask because I sent one earlier to a friend and he said he replied but I never got it...
I ask because I sent one earlier to a friend and he said he replied but I never got it...
SuperPac
Member
Also, if you get a text message while the phone's screen is off, it will turn on (to the "slide to unlock" screen) and display some of the message. If you didn't see it then, when you next wake the phone it'll still be displayed on the unlock screen. And there'll be a red number in the top right of the SMS icon.
Wow, that's awesome about the $100 credit. I was bummed about the price cut and thought I was just screwed for being an early adopter. Didn't expect to get anything back. A $100 store credit towards anything in the store is great. 
Now I have to figure out what to get. Either Leopard for $29 or an Airport base station for $79. I need a new printer too. Hmmmm....
Now I have to figure out what to get. Either Leopard for $29 or an Airport base station for $79. I need a new printer too. Hmmmm....
Kung Fu Jedi
Member
Sean said:Wow, that's awesome about the $100 credit. I was bummed about the price cut and thought I was just screwed for being an early adopter. Didn't expect to get anything back. A $100 store credit towards anything in the store is great.
Now I have to figure out what to get. Either Leopard for $29 or an Airport base station for $79. I need a new printer too. Hmmmm....
Same boat here. I'm thinking Leopard (although I may be able to get a copy through work), AppleTV (not really sold on it though without HD content) or a new 160GB iPod Classic. I don't need that much storage, but the battery life would be killer on long trips.
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