on wednesdsay apple finally announced the launch of their new line of ipods, including the attractive touch ipod which is basically an iphone without the phone. sweet! although the touch ipod doesn’t have all the apps that the iphone has, the OS and binaries installed on the touch ipod are apparently the exact same as the iphone which means those apps, such as mail, can also be installed on the ipod touch. the 16gb storage capacity is also much more appealing than the 8gb limit with the iphone.
they also announced a major price cut for the iphone, from $600 down to $400, and doing away with the 4gb iphone. of course the price cut of one-third has pissed off some early adopters of the iphone who paid the $600 for it when it was first released. according to a nytimes article from this morning, some people have threatened to end their relationship with apple because of it. as a result of the childish outcries from those early adopters, steve jobs released an open letter stating that such customers will receive a $100 in-store credit as a result. awesome and very smart PR from his part… the $100 will most likely lead the customer to buy something more expensive in the apple store which will ultimately put apple above where they were prior to the credit offer.
my problem is with those now bitching about the drastic price drop. true it’s a price drop of one-third after the iphone has been out for only two and a half months, but face it…that’s how the technology industry is. these people seriously need to stop whining and crying over it and just deal with it. that’s the risk you take for adopting any technology when it is first released. if you were willing to pay $600 for the iphone when it was first released, then apparently money was not an issue for you at the time, so why is it now? the nytimes article points out that:
Motorola, for instance, introduced the ultrathin Razr phone for $499 with a two-year service contract in early 2005. Six months later, Motorola realized it had a hit on its hands and dropped the price to $199 in an effort to aim at more mainstream buyers. By the end of 2005, the price was $99.
so did motorola offer any sort of refund or credit after the price dropped by more than half only after 6 months? of course not…many companies wouldn’t which is why the credit offer from apple is a smart move. just suck it up and deal with your loss already, and if you want to end your relationship with apple over something as stupid as this then please do so as we don’t want you to be associated with the apple community!