Apple in iPhone price cut apology
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Apple offers compensation to customers who have already bought an iPhone after the firm cut $200 off the price.
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By Barbara Grady  MATT MORGAN of Alameda said he plans to borrow an iPhone from a friend to check it out before he plunks down $500 for his own.
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Apple did the right thing from an economic standpoint with its iPhone pricing this year, if not from a PR view of the world.
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Apple Inc's  hefty iPhone  price cut pits it in direct competition with handsets from  Motorola Inc  and Palm Inc , which are  struggling to convince Wall Street they can turn around their  aging brands.
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Apple Inc. no longer accepts cash for iPhone purchases and now limits sales of the cell phone to two per person in a move to stop people from reselling them.
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Apple's unexpected price cut on the iPhone may spur more sales of the mobile device. But it angered many early buyers, who flooded the companys support forums with complaints.
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(InfoWorld) - Consumers aren't willing to pay what AppleÂ may ask for theÂ iPhone, but if the price drops they'll switch their mobile service to AT&T in order to get it, according to results of a survey released Thursday. Online market research firm Compete Inc. surveyed 379 people in the U.S., most of whom had heard of the iPhone and have shopped for an iPod, to find out how interested they are in the device to produce the uncommissioned report. The iPhone is a combined music player and cell phone that Apple plans to start selling in the U.S. in June. Among the 26 percent of respondents who said they're likely to buy an iPhone, only 1 percent said they'd pay $500 for it. WhenÂ Apple introduced the iPhoneÂ in January, it said it would cost $500 on the low end. Forty-two percent of those who said they're likely to buy the phone said they'd pay $200 to $299. The iPhone will be available only to subscribers of Cingular Wireless, now part of AT&T. In a blow to the operator's competitors, 60 percent of those in the survey who said they were likely to buy the phone said they'd switch their mobile operator in order to get it. While the iPhone has been discussed as a competitor to other handsets like Research In Motion's BlackBerry, the two serve very different markets, said Andy Neff, an analyst at Bear Stearns who participated in a conference call to discuss the results of the study. "Even though there's talk about this as an alternative to RIM, it's not a corporate product," he said. Instead, the iPhone is an indication of a broad shift toward smartphones and the emergence of niches within the category, he said. The analysts were split on what price they think the device will ultimately retail for. Operators recently haven't been discounting phones in the similar price range as the iPhone, said Phil Cusick, an analyst at Bear Stearns. However, Apple has been known to announce a product with one price and ultimately sell it for less. Apple TV, for example, was expected to cost $399 but sells for $299, he said. The phone may start out around $500 because early adopters will pay that, said Neff. But pricing will likely drop by $100 to $200 to target the mass market, he said.
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Apple iPhone users can pay $87 to have the battery replaced if it fails.
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Apple Inc , faced with an  outcry from iPhone customers who bought the device before a  sharp price cut, will offer them a $100 store credit, Chief  Executive Steve Jobs said on Thursday.
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Apple Inc  will offer a  $100 store credit to people who bought the iPhone before the  company slashed the price by $200, Chief Executive Steve Jobs  said in a statement on Thursday.
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Apple added two new products to its line both at $499. This sets the stage for the price cuts later this year.
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iPhone buyers can get a credit if Apple reduces the price within ten calendar days of shipment.
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AN FRANCISCO  - Some of the first iPhone buyers were divided about the news that Apple is slashing its price by $200, barely two months after the cellphone was launched.
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(InfoWorld) - Apple on Friday offered iPhone owners instructions on how to file for the $100 in-store credit that CEO Steve Jobs promised last week. The credit, whichÂ Jobs announcedÂ after customers rose in revolt on hearing that the company hadÂ cut the price of the iPhoneÂ by one-third, is good for purchases at Apple's retail stores and its online shop, or by dialing Apple's toll-free sales number. IPhone owners, who have until Nov. 30 to apply for the credit, enter their iPhone's serial number and phone number in an online form, either using the iPhone or a PC or Mac. Apple then sends a text message to the iPhone with an access code, which in turn is used to retrieve the electronic credit. The credit consists of a credit number and a PIN, which can be used immediately in the online store or printed out for use later. A Computerworld editor who owns an iPhone confirmed the process, and received his electronic credit almost immediately. The $100 credit is also not good on some items, specifically iTunes purchases or gift cards, and it's valid only in the U.S., the sole market in which Apple has sold the iPhone to date. Because customers must have the iPhone in their possession to receive the credit, those people who sold theirs -- on eBay, for instance, sometimes for a loss when the late June debut didn't end with shortages at stores -- do not receive the credit. Instead, the current owner does. Although Jobs offered the $100 credit last week, saying, "We want to do the right thing for our valued iPhone customers," he also defended the decision to cut the price of the 8GB model from $599 to $399. "Now is the right time to do it," he said then. "IPhone is a breakthrough product, and we have the chance to 'go for it' this holiday season." The day before that announcement, those who had bought the iPhone in its first two months overwhelminglyÂ gave Apple a raspberry,Â seeing the cut as a cheap shot at early adopters and a slap in the face to long-loyal customers. The 4GB iPhone, which initially sold for $499, has been discontinued. Computerworld is an InfoWorld affiliate.
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Apple's 33 percent price cut on top-of-the-line iPhones yesterday took many observers by surprise. Here's why it may not have been such a smart move.
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(InfoWorld) - Apple CEO Steve Jobs Thursday afternoon responded to a flood of complaints from existing iPhone owners over Wednesday's $200 price cut by promising the company would issue a $100 credit to anyone who bought an iPhone before the change. "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," Jobs said in a statement posted to the Apple Web site. In the open letter addressed to "all iPhone customers," Jobs defended the price cut, saying "now is the right time to do it. iPhone is a breakthrough product, and we have the chance to 'go for it' this holiday season." He also echoed -- albeit in more circumspect language -- comments made Wednesday in an interview with reporters from USA Today in which he told disgruntled owners "that's what happens in technology." "There is always someone who bought a product before a particular cutoff date and misses the new price or the new operating system or the new whatever," Jobs said Thursday. "This is life in the technology lane." But he tacitly acknowledged that Apple had stumbled. "We need to do a better job taking care of our early iPhone customers as we aggressively go after new ones with a lower price," Jobs said in the letter. "Our early customers trusted us, and we must live up to that trust with our actions in moments like these." All current iPhone owners with the exception of those eligible for other rebates -- people who purchased an iPhone in the last 14 days, for example, can return it for a refund, minus a 10 percent restocking fee -- will be issued a $100 credit good either at Apple's own retail stores or its online shop, said Jobs. Details were not available, but he promised they would be posted to the Apple site next week. "We want to do the right thing for our valued iPhone customers," he concluded. "We apologize for disappointing some of you, and we are doing our best to live up to your high expectations of Apple." Apple's change of heart was in reaction to the overwhelmingly negative comments that iPhone owners posted to the company's own message forums -- and forums at other Web sites --Â  starting just minutes after the price change announcement Wednesday.
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Responding to a large amount of negative feedback from existing iPhone customers who felt slighted by Apple's decision to lower the price by a third to $399, CEO Steve Jobs apologized Thursday and said the company will offer a $100 credit for purchases from Apple's retail store or online store.