Kevin Tofel speaks out on the iPhone rebate issue on the NYT!
You may have heard about a little issue that caused early iPhone adopters to get a bit outraged over the announced price drop of the phone. The New York Times has an article today, "iPhone owners Crying Foul Over Price Cut" which takes a look at the whole amusing situation. They wanted an expert opinion over the outrage so they reached out to none other than our Kevin Tofel:
The rebate, at least, was enough to mollify some early iPhonecustomers like Kevin Tofel, a blogger in Telford, Pa., who writes aboutmobile phones at a blog called jkOnTheRun. Mr. Tofel was so annoyedwith the surprising iPhone price drop that he was planning to makeT-shirts that read, “I was a $200 iPhone beta tester for Apple.”
“Ijust felt so used as a consumer,” he said. “They hyped up the iPhonefor six months and built up our expectations, and then they grabbed ourextra $200 and ran.”
But Mr. Tofel was pleased to hear about thestore credit. “I think it was probably the best compromise from a P.R.standpoint and the right thing to do for consumers,” he said. “I’m surethey are taking a lot of heat but they are listening to theircustomers.”
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Wow awesome! Congrats Kevin.
Apple made a strategic decision to lower the price of a high end item in order to boost sales for the key buying season of the year. I bought a new MacBook 4 months ago, and guess what happened? Shortly thereafter, the price dropped, the speed increased, and the drive capacity grew. So what? I expected it to happen, because thats how a technology product life cycle works in the real world.
This whining about “being used” is pretty weak. Anyome with a cortex knows to hold off on buying until the product matures a bit. I waited a year for the MacBook to go Intel and get the bugs out. Early adopters (people who wait in lines for new products) always pay a premium. Move on.
It would seem Mr. Tofel has been caught up in the classic ubernerd conundrum: He wants to be the first kid on his block to have the new goodies, but thinks he should get it for the bargain basement clearance price. News flash, pal, that’s not the way it works.
If you really thought it was worth $600 two months ago, then that’s what it was worth. You got to flaunt it over the other nerds for this long, so it should be worth the cash. If it wasn’t worth that much then, you shouldn’t have bought it. Either start waiting longer to buy your gadgets or quit your whining.
An article from Marketwatch sums it up well;
Apple introduces the iPology
Marketwatch – September 07, 2007 8:32 AM ET
Related Quotes
Symbol Last Chg
AAPL Trade 135.01 0.00
Real time quote.
LONDON (MarketWatch) — Apple Computer has developed and introduced an entirely new marketing innovation called the iPology that turns customer complaints into free publicity
Boo hoo hoo.
No sympathy from me. You should be used to this kind of thing.
Just be glad this week didn’t bring the DISCONTINUATION of your model and an IMPROVED one. Just like Sony did with CLIEs.
Wow. I Am So Glad I couldn’t afford ^p^p^p^p^p^p^p^p^p^p wasn’t stoopid enough to wait on that line. (Ha!)
(Yeah, I probably have the ^ character wrong. It’s been ages…)
I bought an HDTV in February. If I had waited until June, I would have paid less. If I were to adopt Mr. Tofel’s philosophy, I would run out to Circuit City and demand a refund. The reason I haven’t is simple: I’m too old to find enjoyment from people laughing at me. Similarly, the first computer I bought cost upwards of $3,000.00. My first laptop upwards of $2,500.00. What makes owners of iPhones so special that they can demand a change in the decades-old market realities of high technology? Get over yourself, Mr. Tofel.
Uhm. Could it be that Mr SJ planned this all along? Not to be a skeptic, but this was a pretty quick turnaround from his earlier “that’s technology” stance. And it makes Apple look really good that they “listened” to their flock, er I meant early adopters. I find it hard to believe that Apple didn’t plan all along to have the iPhone at this new price and get the early birds to fork over the big $.
Whether this was planned or not it worked.
My guess is the PR people got to SJ immediately after his “tough luck” statement and went into full damage control.
Now we have the “Open Letter” before the next news cycle.
Strategery here…..
The $100 credit is looking like a bargain when you add up the value of the publicity and impressions.
I watched the Today Show this morning. 3 stories.
Headline – “Apple gives $100 credit”
Instead of “Apple Customers given the shaft”
The lesson is react quickly. If the credit was given a week later it would have been harder to reel in a full week of bad press.
Congrats, Kevin. Way to go.
So right! Young’ins with little money sense but high on shallow fashion and just HAVE to have the newest tech thing, you just don’t understand that money doesn’t grow on trees. Dad probably popped you the cash and “enabled” you into the lifestyle you can’t afford and now we want to cry about it. Wake up!!!! I suppose you have a mortgage with an ARM or a ballon payment also. Sure you’re cool, you have an IPhone, just call all your “friends” they ‘ll feel sorry for ya because I sure don’t. You weren’t screwed you were stupid. Live with the experience and learn.