4 Comments »

Alwyn said:
I think Steve diluted his brand value .
Their first mistake was to introduce the product with such a high pricepoint . What is the rational for introducing a phone that costs $ 499 and on top of that you have to be locked into a lousy service with Cingular with a minimum per month fee of $60 ( $ 70 with taxes) with a contract period of $ 24 months ( you have to pay $ 250 as termination fee, if you were to disconnect earlier and will NOT be able to use your iphone with any other carrier )
People wized up after the initial hoopla and when sales dried up , Apple had to do something about it , since competition was about to launch similar products .
Bottom line . Due to a bad sales plan and sagging sales for a newly launched product ( remember…. Apple has not forgotten their failure on their first Phone initiative , the ROKR was a failure ( Apple’s JV with Moto) Apple was forced to widen their market , that’s the reason for the price cut.
Almost all early birds for electronics pay higher prices , that is known . Anyone who can afford to pay $ 599 for a phone that is locked to a network , should not be bothered about a $ 200 price cut.
The $ 100 credit voucher is an eye wash . It can be used only at the apple store, the same accessory that costs $ 100 at an Apple store can be bought online for less than half of the price. In the end who wins ? Apple and Steven Jobs .
Yes .. i did buy an Iphone the 4GB for $249 ( managed to get a coupon and that brough the price down from $ 299 ) I have not taken it out of the package . It will be in my closet , till such time I am able to unlock it and use it with who I please … what the heck .. I paid for it .
# 9 September 2007 at 2:18 pm

Arun Chearie said:
Alwyn,
A copule of things..
A) Launching a Product at a feasible (read profitable) price definetely makes business sense, however, the product should worth the salt.
B) Technology is bound to get obsolete, however, that can’t stop consumers to buy products
C) There is no reason for Steve to write the Open Letter to public – To me, it means customer service side of brain in play
D) Not too sure, if Apple will be bothered about competing products. Zen is not even known well in its category.
E) Let know the possible purpose behind the eye-wash.
PS: I think its time to open your closet. iPhone has been cracked
# 9 September 2007 at 2:26 pm

Alwyn said:
My reply below yours.
A) Launching a Product at a feasible (read profitable) price definetely makes business sense, however, the product should worth the salt.
“Marketing gurus have always said, price your products RIGHT and don’t price yourself out. Apple made a big mistake here and priced themselves out of the market. ”
B) Technology is bound to get obsolete, however, that can’t stop consumers to buy products
“Absolutely, so i don’t know why Apple has to be worried about a price drop …. dang……… the 24 inch Samsung monitor that cost $ 500 two months ago is available today for $ 300 . No one is complaining about it , Apple could have quietly done the whole thing , instead chose to announce the price cut during the release of a new product , the Ipod touch, and then follow it up with a credit voucher. I think this has got them a lot of media attention and for free .”
C) There is no reason for Steve to write the Open Letter to public – To me, it means customer service side of brain in play
“The open letter to public is because , Steven wanted to be a good boy and be the caring CEO , Instead the price cut got free publicity from the media and had the EXACT results that Apple hoped for. 4 Hours after the news broke out, Apple.com said their inventory of the 4 gig Iphone was sold out. That was quick . I saw this coming , when Apple started selling REFURBISHED IPHONES 3 weeks ago , the 4 gig for $ 249 and the 8 gig for $ 349
http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/wa/RSLID?nnmm=browse&mco=252EB80C&node=home/specialdeals/iphone
Now some one please tell me … How can a company refurbish a product that has been in market for just 2 months …. Isn’t that something .. either it is a ploy to reduce the price or they had a very high number of returns, which means there is a QC problem.
D) Not too sure, if Apple will be bothered about competing products. Zen is not even known well in its category.
Phones are different from the music players, Apple is looking forward to a lot with the phones and it is new territorry for them . There are several established players in the industry who might be able to pull off a coup with newer phone models. Both markets are totally different. Zen is actually catching up and has close to 24 % market share , if you are looking at the fashion aspect , then it’s the Ipod . Quality and features, the Zen Vision is a killer .
IMHO the Samsung F700 and the Nokia Aeon, will rob Apple’s thunder when they hit the markets in a few months , Apple is aware of it and the price cut was to expand their market reach and customer base.
If you want to have an IPHONE clone , you have the Meizu M8 which is already available in China and looks EXACTLY like the Ipod and they are already creaming the Chinese market.
PS: I think its time to open your closet. iPhone has been cracked
“I am aware of it , I have heard of 2 options , one from a bunch of Israelis and another from some kids in NJ , the second option involves opening your phone and soldering it . I am not for that . The first option is currently no commercialy availabel as ATT is suing that company and uleashed their battery of lawyers. http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/not-so-fast/att-cracks-on-commercial-iphone-unlocking-groups-293468.php
With my previous experiences with ATT ( I unlocked my Samsung D 807 with Cingular , after rebooting the mallock , i promptly got a call from Cingular saying , I was not allowed to do that before my contract was over and they are going to lock the phone remotely , since I was on a phone subsidy ( yes.. that is true , i got the phone free from them )
I would rather err on the right side of the law I still value my peaceful sleep at night .:)
# 9 September 2007 at 3:03 pm

Alwyn said:
Arun,
My reply is below yours.
A)Launching a Product at a feasible (read profitable) price definetely makes business sense, however, the product should worth the salt.
“When launching a new product, companies should make sure they price the product right, not price it out of the market. Apple just priced themselves out of the market. Apple has been trying to get into the mobile phone market for a few years now , they should have set a lower price point and looked at a broader segment of users.”
B) Technology is bound to get obsolete, however, that can’t stop consumers to buy products
“Absolutely, hence I am not sure why Apple has to go on the defensive, the only reason I can think of is, that the company made a bad decision and Apple does not like negative PR and the company is very “ Image conscious “ People who bought plasma tv’s 2 years ago , paid atleast 200 times more than what they are available in the market today . The $ 500 monitor, I bought 6 months ago costs just $ 250 today, Samsung did not send me a voucher. I think Apple had planned on getting free press and this is very good strategy to increase sales.
4 hours after the event and the price reduction , Apple sold out their entire inventory of the 4 gig Iphones, they were not available online and people were at the stores buying them . It is impossible to find a 4 gig Iphone anywhere in the market today . Apple made it good with all the media attention.
The news of price slash , was heavily covered by the media and within a few hours , customers were just mopping up Iphones ……. Talk about heights of “FREE PUBLICITY. “
C) There is no reason for Steve to write the Open Letter to public – To me, it means customer service side of brain in play
“As mentioned before, Apple and Steven Jobs are very Image conscious , Steve is one of the very few CEO’s you will find in Jeans and Turtle neck shirts. Steve just wanted to get more press coverage with an open letter, he did not want to dilute his brand. No product manufacturer has dropped their prices by a whopping 40% within 2 months of launch. Most people who bought the Iphones on the first day of launch would care about the price drop, these are people who might not have a problem with the money. I am sure if you check ebay 4 weeks from now , you will find Apple $ 100 vouchers for sale . The cost of the $ 100 vouchers for Apple will not be more than $ 20 , Apple is actually not losing anything with that , but generating additional media coverage for free
If Apple is concerned about their customers, they should have designed a product where the customers can replace the phone batteries by themselves rather than having to ship it out to Apple.”
D) Not too sure, if Apple will be bothered about competing products. Zen is not even known well in its category.
“IMHO Apple is taking their competition seriously , unlike the music player industry , they are new into the Phone industry and they are going against established players such as Motorola, Samsung, Nokia and Sony .
Apple was getting worried about the sluggish sales of Iphones and wanted to reach out to more people , hence they were forced to cut prices , before losing on market share.
Creative Zen is doing pretty well and has close to 24% of the market share, if looks count , then it is the Ipod . The Creative Zen Touch is actually a much better product that the Ipod .
There are some very good IPHONE killers that are expected to hit the market soon and priced much lower that Apple, The Samsung 700 is extremely good, The Nokia Aeon , will be a killer for sure. It will be ahead of Iphone for sure, Apple is having headaches with Meizu creaming the Chinese market, this phone looks exactly like the Iphone and is already being sold in China at a much cheaper price and will work on any network. Apple has many reasons to be worried and hence the price cut and the free publicity that followed, which in turn increased the Iphone sales over the last few days .”
PS: I think its time to open your closet. iPhone has been cracked
I am aware of that , there are two groups of people who have cracked it , one from Israel and one from New Jersey , the second one involves opening the phone and soldering it , I am not for that . The first group wanted to sell the solution , and was blocked by ATT’s legal team . Check this out .
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9033100&source=rss_news50
I don’t want to be chased by ATT’s legal team , I already had the experience of getting a call from Att’s customer care, when they figured out that I had unlocked the Samsung D 807 ( I tinkered with the mallock on the phone and removed the restrictions by rebooting the OS ) , They said it was against their laws as I was given a subsidized phone with my contract and I could unlock only after the 2 year contract period . Here is the shocker.. they manageD to lock my phone over the air. Apparently ATT and Cingular have sophisticated mechanism by which they release software updates for phones, when you power cycle the phone , the update happens automatically .
I would rather err on the right side of the law.
# 9 September 2007 at 5:20 pm

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