Thanks Apple for the $200 bitch-slap
I love my iPhone. I waited 29 hours in line for it and it was worth it. But what Apple did yesterday was wrong, just plain wrong. I can think of no other word than bitch-slap. Not sure why. I know it isn’t politically correct. But it’s how I feel.
First, though, lets look at the definition of bitch-slap, just so we can be clear and all on the same page:
“To open handedley slap someone. Denote disrespect for the person being bitch slapped as they are not worthy of a man sized punch. Suggests the slap was met with little resistance and much whining”
Like a thorough therapist lets analyze this definition sentence by sentence.
“To open handedly slap someone.”
This is definitely what Apple has done. This wasn’t one of those slow burns, it was an in-your-face slap to the Apple consumer. By changing the pricing a mere 68 days after launching it Apple is saying loud and clear, screw you. Reducing the price by 10 or even 20 percent would have been a slap, a 33 percent reduction is an open handed slap.
“Denote disrespect for the person being bitch slapped as they are not worthy of a man sized punch.”
A man-sized punch would have been to reduce the price and improve the product. It would be manly because Apple would be saying, its ok, technology changes, and we improved it and could make things cheaper. But Apple didn’t do this. They took something that cost exactly the same 63 days ago and reduced the price by 33 percent. Last time I checked flash costs didn’t sink in the last 63 days. The early-adopter isn’t worthy to Apple. We are sheep even though we are the most loyal customers.
“Suggests the slap was met with little resistance and much whining”
I suppose I am whining here. I am also not providing that much resistance. That makes me as much a party to this as Apple. See, I love the companies products so much that I can honestly say I would have pay even more for its products. The $200 was worth having the iPhone first.
But I am whining. I’m whining because this simply isn’t fair. And while I understand companies are about profit this seems to cross the line. By bitch-slapping it’s most loyal customers Apple risks alienating them and risks affecting the future impact of new products it releases. If I know that Apple would pull this 63 days after the iPhone what about with their new iPods? Or new computers (remember, they make those).
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Comments
Sounds like someone’s had their ego bruised.
Those who thought they were one of the few who could afford an iPhone suddenly don’t feel very “special” any more.
Now the whiners get their cookie:
http://www.apple.com/hotnews/openiphoneletter/
Look, people-like-mcloki, the one thing consumers need to ask themselves is: was the iphone worth what you paid for it?
If yes, well then you should be happy you have the disposable income. If no, they why the heck did you buy it!
lol
Let this be a lesson to you—whining works!
You want to be on the bleeding edge and then complain about the cons of being on the bleeding edge?
Sorry. You can’t have it both ways.
When you come back to your senses, you’ll realize that technology inexorably marches forward. Praise the innovators and enjoy your iPhone. Nothing has changed except your perception.
It’s up to you to turn that bitch slap into a handjob.
But wow - to be able simultaneously do something and not do it for the sake of lame arguments!
I hate to get in the way of your rabid and deranged defense of everything Apple (again), but I said that Apple regularly shafted their loyal customers, which they do. Not with a price cut like this, which is unusual, but in other ways. Like when he lied about video on the iPod.
Not that you mind, obviously, as Steve Jobs is your god who only does it because he loves you and knows what’s best for you.
The next time they come out with a product people are not going to go out and immediately run out and get that product. They will wait.
No chance of this scenario whatsoever.
Now the whiners get their cookie:
The complaining must have been exceptionally loud. Still, kudos to Apple for making this move.
I said that Apple regularly shafted their loyal customers… Like when he lied about video on the iPod.
Wow, that is… such an incisive example… steve said he didn’t think video was where it’s at on the ipod… and MILLIONS OF CUSTOMERS WERE SHAFTED…
No.
Argument still shoddy. Nothing to see.
Beeb wrote: “Like when he lied about video on the iPod.”
Obviously, Job’s statement wasn’t directed at consumers. It was a comment on the industry in general. You won’t find these kinds of statements on the Apple website or store.
If consumers try to “play” Apple based on quotes, like inexperienced investors try to play the market, they’re bound to get burned.
2 words….
Man Up. Man up.
Hadley, think of it this way. For being the first-on-the-block to have an iPhone, you and everyone else who have willingly and happily plundered their one week’s discretionary income, paid a handsome $2.98/day of bleeding-edge tax to Uncle Steve.
Now, don’t tell me that wasn’t worth it because it was, ain’t that right? Having that cool phone was a show-stopper wherever you went. College/mall/office chicks adulated to it. Our bosses and peers can’t keep their fingers off of it. You were in iPhone heaven while it lasted.
So now, are you saying Apple, or any other tech company for that matter, have no right to change their price points at will??? Where in the &*CK do you get that idea from? Did Apple somehow sell you a contract that it must not drop the iPhone price to protect your perceived elitist status-quo? Did you ever read the disclaimer?
You, of all people that cover tech, should know better than complain and publish their personal anguish for paying their share of “Hey, look at me I have the coolest phone on Earth!” tax.
C’mon, think about it.
You waited 29 hours in line to join an exclusive club, where you could have something that your neighbors the jonses probably didn’t get. When you purchased that pretty iPhone you engaged in a contract with Apple, that consisted of two things:
1)Hand Apple $600
2)Apple hands you a new iPhone.
That agreement doesn’t say that Apple can’t sell a different (meaning not the one you purchased) to another person at later time for nothing more than a glass of soda and a smile.
The only one breaking the contract is you, buy trying to change your agreement after the fact. What’s next? Are early adopters with more money and time than sense who purchase a Macbook on the first day going to piss and moan when the new model comes out 4 months later?
You didn’t have any problem waiting in line for 29 hours (!) and spending $600 on the day it was introduced. That you have a problem with it now shows that the only reason you purchased it was to join the “I have something you don’t” country club. Next time you want exclusivity buy a phone by Bang and Olufsen, or Prada. And when they drop the price on that, you and all of the other nimrods with more money and time and ego than sense can choke on it.