My first reaction when I saw Apple’s press release about the price cuts to their internationally-known and highly touted, “God-Phone” – the iPhone, although I probably didn’t need to say that – was to laugh uproariously.

I don’t think I was alone either. I remember reading the press reports when the iPhone was released back in late June…the line waiting, the excitement, and the feeling of general joviality over the whole thing. Of course, the rest of the world raised its collective eyebrow and said, “no thanks, we’ll wait ’til it’s no longer $599, or til when it’s released with other carriers.” By the rest of the world, of course I mean America. Frankly Apple was forced to tell the rest of the world to pound sand, thanks to ATT/Cingular’s demand that it be the sole provider for the signals tethering the iPhone to the USA.

Anyway, I digress. Of course, I knew what the reaction would be. Thousands of irate, embittered, angry calls to Apple demanding why they were played for “suckers” and the rest of the country was now laughing at them. Their precious phone was now being bought for $399! What kind of status symbol is that? Plus, now they look like idiots for being the first in line and paying the premium for being first.

picard_facepalm

Wait, did I just hit on it? They had the honor of being first to have the iPhone. Isn’t that worth $200 dollars to them? It must have been, because of course if I was running Apple no one would have seen a single dime from me, not a nice little $100 gift from Steve Jobs as an apology. If I was Steve, I’d tell them that I was sorry they felt wronged, and say “Welcome to the Early Adopter life!”

Of course, that’s why I’m not running Apple – I have little patience for people who demand to get into the early adopter lifestyle without being prepared for all of what that entails. As a consumer of high performance computer components for the past half decade, I could have told any one of these crybabies that this is the world of technology, and to boot, you’re getting in bed with a company that has never made a mobile phone in its existance. At least when I buy a $500 video card from ATi or nVidia I understand that I’m going to be seeing that same card merely months later for hundreds of dollars less. I feel bad for Apple because they should have had it stamped on these people’s foreheads when they bought their phones that they were basically being a guinea pigs. Why should Apple be held hostage for making a business decision that is completely typical to the world of boutique computer systems?

I understand that it’s different. A phone is not a video card. Apple is not lowering the price because they have iPhone 2.0 and they’re trying to get rid of stock, they’re lowering prices to sell more products for the holiday season. Wait, did I just understand it again? Are companies allowed to lower prices of items before holiday gift-buying seasons? Gosh, I think they are! I can’t understand how people are being caught unaware by this!

I wouldn’t last very long as the CEO of Apple. The shareholders would probably kill me for having that sort of tough-love attitude. Apple needs its early adopters because they’re what make or break their product reviews. It’s a shame though, that their early adopters are turning on them now because they got into a game they didn’t understand.

EXTERNAL LINK: oh boo hoo, my phone is now cheap!

NOTE (10/17/2007): Come to think of it, as I’m doing my homework on copyright law and intellectual property, I always wondered how Apple was able to get away with even calling it the “iPhone” being that Cisco Systems had already copyrighted and released a product called the iPhone which was released months before the Apple iPhone. According to Wikipedia, it was resolved when Cisco and Apple said they would work for “interoperability,” whatever the hell that means. I think it means Apple used its clout with the consumers (Very few consumers know of “Cisco” although more know of its subsidiary “Linksys”) to woo over the thought of Apple promoting Cisco/Linksys products.

That and Cisco probably could have cared less, since it charges corporations thousands of dollars for its firewalls, routers, switches, etc and doesn’t really need a VoIP phone which is actually a piece of crap anyway.