ALL about money for Apple

[Silverado]

What a day for Apple with their "special" event. On this day they:

1) Show us how they preyed on early, excited adopters by charging them a high price that could barely be sustained for two months.

2) Instead of addressing the legitimate complaints and enhancement requests of these early adopter, produce an update that simply widens the revenue stream flowing into their pockets while adding laughable and neglegable value to the these users' experience.

I've never seen a more blatant display of corporate greed by a (supposedly) respected consumer elertronics company than what was done by Apple today.

It's all and solely about the money for this company and I've learned my lesson. This was the first Apple product I ever bought and it is definitely my last. I will not give another dime to these ego maniacs who think that I'm stupid enough to be pleased by new "features" that are simply new ways of buying from them and for the excitement over these new fantastic "features" to distract me from the fact that they just revealed to me how they preyed on me. No, thank you, Mr. Jobs. I've seen enough.

[connie]

I 100% totally agree!!! this just sucks!!!!

[Giies]

totally agree with you, and i'm glad that i didn't buy any ipod or any macbook from them.

[Silverado]

totally agree with you, and i'm glad that i didn't buy any ipod or any macbook from them.

And to think I was going to buy a Macbook this week! No way on earth I'll ever do such a thing now.

[ZiggyPop]

My wife was going to buy an iPhone at the previously inflated price! Whodda thunk it?

[ebrunn]

Apple cuts the price of the iPhone and decreases their profit margin on it and they are making more money?:rolleyes:

[4mula1]

http://images.apple.com/iphone/share/images/share_header20070802.gif


If you’ve recently bought an iPhone, we’d love to hear your favorite story about using it. Call and leave a voicemail with your story at 1-800-764-9941, or write us. We’re all ears.


I think everyone of us should call Apple and "Share our Story"! Dont you agree?

[Silverado]

Apple cuts the price of the iPhone and decreases their profit margin on it and they are making more money?:rolleyes:

Please re-read my post. You didn't understand it.

[joe]

I completely disagree with the OP. While I wish the price cuts hadn't been so dramatic, it was inevitable. Yes, Apple is concerned with making money. Capitalism, profit margins, sales, and stock price. It's the name of the game.

[Norwest]

Apple cuts the price of the iPhone and decreases their profit margin on it and they are making more money?:rolleyes:

Essentially, YES. More than they would have at the current pace. iPhone sales have slumped considerably since July.

1. People who were on the fence price-wise will now maybe buy one.

2. People who have one and are less than enthused with the software updates will be less likely to sell it (since the value just plummeted) thereby keeping the visibility of it where or near where it is to help #1.

3. See #1. They'll get a cut of those new contracts they wouldn't have gotten by selling it at $399 vs. NOT selling many more at $599.

4. See #1. All of those 8 gb models they produced that would have never sold will (might) now sell and help some "new users" buy more iTunes stuff since they "saved so much money" on the device itself. Another $100 per new $399 user or whatever in songs or video sales they never would have gotten.

Not to mention tying them to the iTunes media formats before they choose another. $$$$$

5. Produce a 16gb model using the same flash from the new iPod Touch (how hard can that be, a couple of screws?) and bring in some more suckers at the $599 price-point they just cleared away. Prepare to line up. Maybe even $499.

6. They need to get as much of the contract % money from AT&T as possible before the unlock solutions get out fully. They need the shelf-stock in peoples hands as soon as possible. In this case the hacking was a bad thing... it threatens their long-term profits from At&T contracts.

Your question seems to assume that they were continuing to sell briskly at $499 and $599 and they will now lose money with the reduction to $399. In fact they will probably make more money (short-term) than they would have made under the current conditions.

I would prefer a smaller short-term profit and better long term customer loyalty and trust.

I think the fall of the stock price after the event shows the problem they have. The market thinks this may not be a successful long-term strategy and/or the products they showed are not that great. Or (like I do with the iPods) priced too high.

Basic marketing/sales, you potentially make more money selling a lot of lower cost things than selling only a few higher cost things and being stuck with tons of unsold stock that cost you money. It's called a sale. :) They've pretty much tapped out the $599 suckers... us. Now they are having an iPhone sale.

I hope NOBODY is buying and I will discourage everyone I know.

My postition is that had they focused on releasing great software for it after the launch and gotten it out to early adopters, it would have held it's value and sustatined sales at the original price points and none of this B.S. would have been necessary. Many more people would have jumped on the bandwagon. A minor discount ($50?) may have still been in order.

I find it hard to believe that exact position wasn't supported by SOMEONE in Apple at some point.

Developer X: "Why don't we just write kick-ass programs and keep it at $599 through next spring?"

Jobs: "No, we need to make this years projected sales targets..."

If only they had written spreadsheets and MMS and chat and file access and many of the other things that kept so many people away. I thought that's what they were doing. I was SO wrong. They're acting exclusively like a hardware company, not a hardware/software company.

There are NO new iPhone applications from Apple. None. Zip. Nada. Say what you will about Microsoft, they wouldn't have missed that point. SOFTWARE APPLICATIONS are KEY to smartphones. SDK supported and encouraged 3rd party development would have done the trick. We'd have all kinds of useful apps... and a REAL smartphone.

Steve Jobs has gotten my last dollar.

This a a move to clear stock and increase short-term profit. If it was still selling briskly at $599 they would not have done it... that would have been stupid.

So to answer your question... YES. MORE MONEY. And the stock market seems to think they made the wrong choices... the stock fell. The market recognizes they are playing catch-up to the profits that got away and have executed a poor long-term stategy with the iPhone.

More money than they would have made otherwise since they apparently have no intention of adding the kind of software features that would make it appear to actually be worth $599 and still sell for, or near that, to those many smart people who held out.

But less money than they probably could have made if they had done it right in the first place. Which doesn't speak well for Apple management and is reflected in the stock market... no matter how many they sell now at $399.

I think if one could see the last 30-60 day sales reports of the iPhone it would be pretty clear what happened here.

Wide profit margins are useless if nobody is buying the product anymore. To make money you must actually sell them.

They screwed us for more short-term "Christmas Season" profit. The thing only cost $250 to make, they could probably burn their current stock and still be ahead. But ... there's still more money to get. But they still did it wrong.

Line up... future suckers. I'm done.

[joe]

To answer your question... YES. More money than they would have made otherwise since they apparently have no intention of adding the kind of software that would make it appear to actually be worth $599 to those smart people who held out.

How does the iPhone's short life-span show that? Especially after today's announcements of new features coming to the iPhone.

[Swagger]

What a day for Apple with their "special" event. On this day they:

1) Show us how they preyed on early, excited adopters by charging them a high price that could barely be sustained for two months.

2) Instead of addressing the legitimate complaints and enhancement requests of these early adopter, produce an update that simply widens the revenue stream flowing into their pockets while adding laughable and neglegable value to the these users' experience.

I've never seen a more blatant display of corporate greed by a (supposedly) respected consumer elertronics company than what was done by Apple today.

It's all and solely about the money for this company and I've learned my lesson. This was the first Apple product I ever bought and it is definitely my last. I will not give another dime to these ego maniacs who think that I'm stupid enough to be pleased by new "features" that are simply new ways of buying from them and for the excitement over these new fantastic "features" to distract me from the fact that they just revealed to me how they preyed on me. No, thank you, Mr. Jobs. I've seen enough.

I totally agree with the OP. Steve Jobs will never get one dime more of my money. I feel like I have been raped. I am totally disgusted with Apple. We should all call Apple and AT&T tomorrow and complain like crazy. One of those two companies owes everyone a refund!!! Sure it was my choice to buy the iPhone, but to pay TOP DOLLAR, get into a mandatory 2 year contract with AT&T, and get nothing but a 200.00 reduction in price three months later is a bit hard to stomach. Steve Jobs is nothing but a, two bit con man. Apple you have seen the last of me!!!! Mark :angry:

[Silverado]

How does the iPhone's short life-span show that? Especially after today's announcements of new features coming to the iPhone.

Features? Are you seriously calling these features? More ways with which to buy from Apple. That's all what these "features" are.

[seb481]

Couldnt agree more with the OP. I will never spend another dime in apple products. I'm not even sure I'll ever be able to eat apple pie again. The name just makes me wanna puke

[joe]

Features? Are you seriously calling these features? More ways with which to buy from Apple. That's all what these "features" are.

Yep, but you can call them whatever you like. I'm not going to debate semantics. I'll be able to do things on my iPhone that I can't do today. I'm looking forward to it.

[connie]

I totally agree with the OP. Steve Jobs will never get one dime more of my money. I feel like I have been raped. I am totally disgusted with Apple. We should all call Apple and AT&T tomorrow and complain like crazy. One of those two companies owes everyone a refund!!! Sure it was my choice to buy the iPhone, but to pay TOP DOLLAR, get into a mandatory 2 year contract with AT&T, and get nothing but a 200.00 reduction in price three months later is a bit hard to stomach. Steve Jobs is nothing but a, two bit con man. Apple you have seen the last of me!!!! Mark :angry:


Totally agree! We were royally screwed by Apple after being loyal to them and buying when they released it.

[Kev1000000]

I completely agree. Apple has lost my business with any future tech products.

[ucla24]

I completely agree. Apple has lost my business with any future tech products.


Blame Apple not AT&T...they make no money on hardware only on service plans.

[Swagger]

Totally agree! We were royally screwed by Apple after being loyal to them and buying when they released it.

Yes, this is a wonderful way to thank all the people who drove Apple's profit margin through the roof in June and July. We should organize an iPhone smashing event, in what a better place than, Cupertino, Ca...M

[Silverado]

Yep, but you can call them whatever you like. I'm not going to debate semantics. I'll be able to do things on my iPhone that I can't do today. I'm looking forward to it.

Enjoy your further purchases from iTunes and the current song while at Starbucks. :)

[joe]

Enjoy your further purchases from iTunes and the current song while at Starbucks. :)

Yep, direct-to-iPhone purchases and ringtones. I will enjoy them. Thanks! :smile:

[xSoNiCcRaCkErSx]

Essentially, YES. More than they would have at the current pace. iPhone sales have slumped considerably since July.

1. People who were on the fence price-wise will now maybe buy one.

2. People who have one and are less than enthused with the software updates will be less likely to sell it (since the value just plummeted) thereby keeping the visibility of it where or near where it is to help #1.

3. See #1. They'll get a cut of those new contracts they wouldn't have gotten by selling it at $399 vs. NOT selling many more at $599.

4. See #1. All of those 8 gb models they produced that would have never sold will (might) now sell and help some "new users" buy more iTunes stuff since they "saved so much money" on the device itself. Another $100 per new $399 user or whatever in songs or video sales they never would have gotten.

Not to mention tying them to the iTunes media formats before they choose another. $$$$$

5. Produce a 16gb model using the same flash from the new iPod Touch (how hard can that be, a couple of screws?) and bring in some more suckers at the $599 price-point they just cleared away. Prepare to line up. Maybe even $499.

6. They need to get as much of the contract % money from AT&T as possible before the unlock solutions get out fully. They need the shelf-stock in peoples hands as soon as possible. In this case the hacking was a bad thing... it threatens their long-term profits from At&T contracts.

Your question seems to assume that they were continuing to sell briskly at $499 and $599 and they will now lose money with the reduction to $399. In fact they will probably make more money than they would have made under the current conditions.

I think the fall of the stock price after the event shows the problem they have. The market thinks that may not be a successful strategy and/or the products they showed are not that great. Or (like I do) priced too high.

Basic marketing/sales, you potentially make more money selling a lot of lower cost things than selling only a few higher cost things and being stuck with tons of unsold stock that cost you money. It's called a sale. :) They've pretty much tapped out the $599 suckers... us. Now they are having an iPhone sale.

I hope NOBODY is buying and I will discourage everyone I know.

My postition is that had they focused on releasing great software for it after the launch and gotten it out to early adopters, it would have held it's value and sustatined sales at the original price points and none of this B.S. would have been necessary. Many more people would have jumped on the bandwagon. A minor discount ($50?) may have still been in order.

I find it hard to believe that exact position wasn't supported by SOMEONE in Apple at some point.

Developer X: "Why don't we just write kick-ass programs and keep it at $599 through next spring?"

Jobs: "No, we need to make this years projected sales targets..."

If only they had written spreadsheets and MMS and chat and file access and many of the other things that kept so many people away. I thought that's what they were doing. I was SO wrong. They're acting exclusively like a hardware company, not a hardware/software company.

There are NO new iPhone applications from Apple. None. Zip. Nada.

Steve Jobs has gotten my last dollar.

This a a move to clear stock and increase short-term profit. If it was still selling briskly at $599 they would not have done it... that would have been stupid.

So to answer your question... YES. MORE MONEY.

More money than they would have made otherwise since they apparently have no intention of adding the kind of software features that would make it appear to actually be worth $599 and still sell for, or near that, to those many smart people who held out.

I think if one could see the last 30-60 day sales reports of the iPhone it would be pretty clear what happened here.

Wide profit margins are useless if nobody is buying the product anymore. To make money you must actually sell them.

They screwed us for more profit. The thing only cost $250 to make, they could probably burn their current stock and still be ahead. But ... there's still more money to get.

Line up... future suckers. I'm done.

Excellent write up.

[lci3341]

I think we should definately write or call APPLE and let them know how we feel. Here's a copy of the email I sent them:


I'd like to write to APPLE to let them know how disappointed I am and ripped off I feel after finding out that less than 2 months after spending over 1200 dollars on 2 iphones, the price was dramatically reduced by 33%. I, along with most iPhone owners, knew that we would be paying more than future owners but expected that this price drop would ultimately occur over time as technology prices declined and newer models with better features are released. Unfortunately it appears that the "markup" for the 1st 2 months was a business strategy aimed at taking the dollars away from the customers who have been most loyal to apple in the past. And in the process tarnishing the reputation of the company. The $200 extra that I paid for each iPhone was "sucker" fee. And according to Apple, if they have almost sold 1 million iPhones so far, there were 1 million suckers to take advantage of. I love the iPhone, but I don't love the feeling of being ripped off that I have whenever I use it now, or whenever I think of future Apple products I would consider purchasing.

[cybergreg]

What fscking planet are you people living on, seriously?

Name one electronic device that hasn't come down in price after a few months - 5 months, 9 months, any amount of time?

...

Now let's name a few that have
Every iPod ever released
Playstation III
Xbox 360
Every single cell phone ever made!
Every single television ever made .

Oh and I have a surprise for you... there will be a much better iPhone in 2008! Oh my GOD, we should start *****ing about that right NOW!!!

Fsckin Apple - improving their products, lowering the price, improving sales numbers, improving the company's position in the market, beating estimates - those rotten bastards! I tell you what... I gonna go buy ANOTHER iPhone just to piss you guys off :tounge: wait I think I'll buy a new iMac too and give my 6 month old iMac to my wife, yeah that'll teach Apple for screwing with us!

Quit yer *****in' suck it up, you were standing in line just waiting to get your hands on this marvelous device...
:smile:

[Swagger]

What fscking planet are you people living on, seriously?

Name one electronic device that hasn't come down in price after a few months - 5 months, 9 months, any amount of time?

...

Now let's name a few that have
Every iPod ever released
Playstation III
Xbox 360
Every single cell phone ever made!
Every single television ever made .

Oh and I have a surprise for you... there will be a much better iPhone in 2008! Oh my GOD, we should start *****ing about that right NOW!!!

Fsckin Apple - improving their products, lowering the price, improving sales numbers, improving the company's position in the market, beating estimates - those rotten bastards! I tell you what... I gonna go buy ANOTHER iPhone just to piss you guys off :tounge: wait I think I'll buy a new iMac too and give my 6 month old iMac to my wife, yeah that'll teach Apple for screwing with us!

Quit yer *****in' suck it up, you were standing in line just waiting to get your hands on this marvelous device...
:smile:

You sir, are no doubt an Apple Fanboy??? Let me ask you this, has any of those products you named been discontinued (all together) after roughly two months??? The answer is NO!!! I feel so bad for the folks that bought the 4GB. Their 499.00 just went down the tubes. The 4GB is now obsolete, therefore worthless. I have an 8GB, but feel it was very wrong of Apple to screw the 4 gigers like they did...M

[Norwest]

What fscking planet are you people living on, seriously?

Name one electronic device that hasn't come down in price after a few months - 5 months, 9 months, any amount of time?

Sorry, that's simply bulls__t.

Name ANY first generation brand new technology product that's :

1. The first of it's kind ever.
2. Touted as revolutionary in it's class in some ways,
3. Broke opening day sales records by selling to hundreds of thousands of people in one single day...
4. That people actually love and still want.

That then dropped 33% retail price in two months in one version and completely discontinued in the other? Name ONE ever.

Absent a SERIOUS design flaw that affects operation or a public health hazard or very poor initial sales, you will not find ANY. Something with lead in it that makes people ill maybe? Something that catches fire maybe? A stupid idea that never sold in the first place maybe?

NOTHING LIKE THE IPHONE. There is no parrallel to this that I've ever seen in modern initially successful electronic toys. Not that fast ever.

33%?

What fscking planet are you living on?

[Silverado]

What fscking planet are you people living on, seriously?

Name one electronic device that hasn't come down in price after a few months - 5 months, 9 months, any amount of time?

...

Now let's name a few that have
Every iPod ever released
Playstation III
Xbox 360
Every single cell phone ever made!
Every single television ever made .

Oh and I have a surprise for you... there will be a much better iPhone in 2008! Oh my GOD, we should start *****ing about that right NOW!!!

Fsckin Apple - improving their products, lowering the price, improving sales numbers, improving the company's position in the market, beating estimates - those rotten bastards! I tell you what... I gonna go buy ANOTHER iPhone just to piss you guys off :tounge: wait I think I'll buy a new iMac too and give my 6 month old iMac to my wife, yeah that'll teach Apple for screwing with us!

Quit yer *****in' suck it up, you were standing in line just waiting to get your hands on this marvelous device...
:smile:

I'm surprised you wasted your time explaining this well-known point that does not apply. The complaint is about the size of the drop (33%) and the time frame (2 months). None of your examples come close. Get it?

[ciaran00]

Stop being so dense. 200. Great. Find another outlet to vent your frustration of capitalism. It'll save you some grey hairs.

I'm stoked about the ever expanding iPhone userbase. It's been a couple months and we have stuff like Installer.app... just imagine where it's all going. My god.

[askewed]

I totally agree with the OP. Steve Jobs will never get one dime more of my money. I feel like I have been raped.

I'll assume you've never been raped...

[lci3341]

Thanks God for USA today. On the day that Apple released 4 new products, the number one question when they talked to steve jobs...:

What do you say to customers who just bought a new iPhone for $599? Sorry?

I hope this creates a backlash or gets more media attention so that the big story from the event is not the new ipods, but the angry customers.

[Silverado]

Thanks God for USA today. On the day that Apple released 4 new products, the number one question when they talked to steve jobs...:

What do you say to customers who just bought a new iPhone for $599? Sorry?

I hope this creates a backlash or gets more media attention so that the big story from the event is not the new ipods, but the angry customers.

It's a big topic of discussion that generated a lot of traffic here and in other forums. Unfortunately, it's now being masked because many of the topics have been labled off topic and moved here.

[ps49556n]

It is not being masked, debate over the price drop is off topic on these boards.....the point of the main iphone forum is to discuss the iPhone hardware itself....not the recent price drop.

[Silverado]

It is not being masked, debate over the price drop is off topic on these boards.....the point of the main iphone forum is to discuss the iPhone hardware itself....not the recent price drop.

Then I suggest that EI adds a topic or topics where these discussions would fit without being called off-topic. If a large number of users are interested in the topic, and it is about the iPhone, maybe we should find a place for it without anonymizing/marginalizing it.