

Steve Jobs - To All iPhone Customers - mk
http://www.apple.com/hotnews/openiphoneletter/

======
vikram
Buying the 1st generation of an apple product is never a great idea, if you
are going to be pissed off about problems or future price drops. Its just
something that hardcore apple fans expect from apple and love about apple. I
try and let others find the problems and buy the 2nd lot which either has more
capacity or is slightly cheaper.

I guess with the iPhone a lot of the customers are first time apple customers,
so they don't know how the system works.

~~~
adamdoupe
> I guess with the iPhone a lot of the customers are first time apple
> customers, so they don't know how the system works.

I think this is exactly the problem they had with dropping the price of the
iPhone. That and the fact it's been on the market for 2 months.

------
sethg
Whenever I am tempted to buy some new and cool high-end electronic product, I
ask myself, "Since this thing will probably cost half as much a year from now,
do I really need to own it _right now_?" The answer is almost always "No."

(Of course, that new iPod Touch is--SLAP! Bad consumer! No retirement fund!)

~~~
zach
Ha! So true. And it makes even less sense to buy software right now when the
same content will be cheaper within months -- DVDs that you know are going to
end up in a box set, single-player video games, even hardback books.

------
Readmore
Steve is brilliant! What can you get at an Apple store for $100? A keyboard, a
mouse, or a gift card. This $100 store credit is going to end up selling MORE
Apple hardware because everything is so expensive. People get to feel all warm
and fuzzy again and Apple makes more money. It's amazing.

~~~
gommm
And then it's not like people who allready own an iphone are going to spend
money on an iphone or an ipod... So it's a great way to get new consumers to
start buying products like the apple tv or macs....

------
zach
I've been reading Fake Steve Jobs too much. I expected a "Bokay, cheaptards?"
at the end.

------
gqgy
this strategy is about gaining and maintaining market share. 'pleasing
customers' is merely a pheripheral initiative to the overall strategy of
market share. jobs is an innovator, but he does it by sticking to old school
traditional business strategies. i wouldn't be surprised, if sometime in the
next decade, apple is accused of 'bundling', similarly to microsoft with IE
and windows. apple has been gaining market share little by little in various
industries. once their share reaches a dominant position, its products will
become dependent on each other. until they reach that position, jobs will be
the nicest guy in the industry.

~~~
nirs
They already do this: you want QuickTime for Windows? you must install also
iTunes, because both come in the same installer.

~~~
inrev
not anymore

------
umjames
Wow. This is why I like Apple. Despite all of the business rationale for this
move, it actually feels like Apple cares for its early adopters. Whether they
do or not is immaterial; the effect is still the same, it feels sincere.

~~~
aston
I think most early buyers would prefer a $200 cash rebate rather than a $100
gift certificate to the Apple store. Especially since almost everything in
there is above the $100 level.

I think the gesture's nice, but it's definitely not completely fair.

~~~
curi
What's fair about buying something at a price that you think is worth it, then
going back a month later and complaining you aren't happy anymore?

~~~
aston
I think buyers of the iPhone would have been reasonable in assuming that their
device would remain at its launch price for _at least_ three months. It's
really atypical to drop the price on electronics so quickly, and it really
does slight early adopters. If I were one, I would be pissed.

~~~
aston
I'm getting modded to hell here. Some real Apple lovers in the crowd. Not
allowed to express an opinion anymore?

~~~
curi
A) I didn't mod you down.

B) No one is forcibly stopping you from expressing your opinion. We can even
still see your comment. Whining "look at me I'm being censored" when people
disagree with you is dumb.

~~~
aston
How you mod me (or not) is your perogative. However, I think the practice of
modding people down on a piece of pure opinion is about as dumb as it gets. I
make a habit of modding up anyone in the ditches (0 karma or lower) who made
the 'mistake' of expressing an unpopular opinion. Why silence opposition?

Save the downmods for posts with poor quality.

~~~
pg
That's a bit dramatic. How does downmodding "silence" you?

I think it's time to add another principle to the evolving news.yc list of
house rules: don't add comments that do nothing more than complain about
people downmodding you. This whole branch of the thread is a waste of pixels.

~~~
blored
Ohh, let's spice up the Leaders page. Those are (I know how hard they are to
earn) hard earned karma points. People should at least get to show their web
app if they are in the leaders section. Or change the colors. Either way, it's
a point of pride among those on it. Or let's increase the size of the
Leaderboard to reflect growing YC traffic, or have a 'Most Karma' this month.

Anybody listening?

~~~
epi0Bauqu
I also put this on the features page, but I think separating submission karma
from comments karma would also be a useful expansion. Perhaps a few columns of
leaders using different metrics would work. For example, top leaders, top
submission leaders, top comment leaders, and then maybe some time ones, like
upcoming comment leaders, etc.

~~~
Xichekolas
Who honestly cares about Karma? I find it useful if I want to skim the
posts/comments for a good one, but holding it up like it was some kind of
achievement just distorts the whole point of the site, which is to keep up on
things in startup-land. When you spend your entire day working on your karma
score, you might as well go play WoW. No offense Paul, but WoW has way better
3d graphics!

------
Harj
"even though we are making the right decision to lower the price of iPhone"

what a fantastic line to put in an apology email. there's only one steve jobs.

------
semigeek
Steve was damned if he did, damned if he didn't.

------
mattculbreth
This is great! I'm pleased as can be. Hereby stating publicly to spend the
money buying something else from them. :)

------
dawie
This is the reason that Apple is going to be the next Microsoft

~~~
axod
What??!?!?? Explain your workings please.

------
mattmaroon
Steve should issue everyone an extra $100 credit for being a dunce and going
with AT&T

