This isn’t about functionality OR money, the $200 doesn’t mean that much to me honestly. It’s about the fact that Apple has, in effect, said in a very loud voice “We priced this item too high because we knew you suckers would buy it anyways, and now we’re going to change the price to what it should’ve been all along… tough luck if you were one of the suckers who paid too much!”

That’s not OK. That’s called price gouging. And the people they gouged are their CORE customers. The people who helped CREATE the buzz that sells the iphone. The people who LOVE(D) apple. THOSE are the people who are p i s s e d. And with good reason.

I don’t like the feeling of Apples corporate **** in my ***. It makes me mad. I got screwed so that Jobs could make some more money and some more press. Sorry, but **** that.

Sure, I agree with many of you that I don’t ‘deserve’ anything just because I bought my iPhone on July 25th. However, we do have the right to be pissed off about it. Because this is NOT a natural price change, this is a pre-planned PRICE SKIM.

Lookup price skimming for a more detailed explanation. Its a pricing strategy that you use to attempt to collect as many of the consumers at a significantly high-dollar price point before you lower the price to compensate for market competitors or to gain sales quantity traction.

One of the primary reasons against the use of price skimming is because of the high risk of loosing BLC (brand-loyal consumers), who are often your early adopters and often account for a significant amount of ‘product gospel’. The more significant the percentage of the price you are skimming, the higher the number of lost BLC you can expect.

Obviously in this case Apple doesn’t care about the lost BLCs. I think they are wagering on the fact that massive increase in sales over the product lifetime will make up for any lost sales, by BLCs (After all, they already bought their iPhone right?).

What the apparently don’t understand is that sure, my personal revenue may only account for $1500-3000 a year between MAC hardware, iPod/iPhone, and accessories. But I represent a firm that spends 10 times that amount on Apple goods. I am a highly valued opinion among my circle of associates and colleagues that also represent another tens of thousands of dollars in purchases. And probably at worst, I am a trusted adviser to our clients who combined, spend on the order of $150K-$200K on Apple goods per year.

The question is, would I REALLY be driven enough to turn my back on Apple? Last night I wasn’t very sure, but after Jobs’s comments, its clear that this won’t be the first time they run a price skimming operation. Now I have a personal distaste what has happened AND a business-oriented financial reason to discourage others in my circle from at the very least, purchasing a immature Apple product. Not a complete loss of sales, but most definitely an order of magnitude loss, and further a long-term loss of profit margin (considering we will wait for significant price drops before purchasing new hardware).

You burned me Apple, thats all there is to it. Sure, its justifiable, and I’m not arguing it isn’t. I’m just saying that you DID burn me, and having your CEO mouth off about ‘that’s technology’ isn’t going to change me or my how I feel.

As for myself, I purchased the iPhone 15 days before the price drop, and I’m going to fight like hell with AT&T to get that money back. If it was $25 or $50 dollar, that would be one thing, but this is $200 dollars. That’s my electric bill for a month, or my car payment.

I made also made a huge committment with AT&T when I decided to go with the iPhone. I had been going back and forth a lot between the iPhone and my old service from Cincinnati Bell, which honestly kicked much a$$ (and no contracts either). So for me, making the decision to go to the iPhone was a major step in the ethics department for me.

I’ve already contacted my AT&T sales rep, and am waiting to hear back. I’m going to go apeshit on them if I feel they are being unreasonable (or if they say no).