Most of the furor over the big iPhone price cut is over-blown. I’m still frankly amazed that Apple has offered $100 store credit to every iPhone owner who isn’t benefiting from the $200 price drop. It’s unprecedented and creates a dangerous expectation that the same will happen the next time Apple cuts a product’s price.
But at least the people who have complained most loudly about Apple’s decision to me OWN iPhones. I can’t say the same for Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post, who claims he would be “iRate” about the price cut. If only he owned one.
This time, though, he has failed to live up to one clause in his implied contract with iPhone buyers. The sky-high price was supposed to guarantee a decent period of exclusivity. For a time, if you bought an iPhone, you were supposed to be the envy of your friends. The ability to show off all the neat things it could do was your compensation for the fact that the iPhone didn’t really change your life.
Hmm. Yes. Other than that, it’s a pretty standard “What’s wrong with the world today?”-type column (Did you know that technology doesn’t actually solve all of life’s problems? Or that people are getting stabbed with knives and forks? And calling each other names like dork?). But he had to change direction at some point — it’s hard to lead the charge of a cause when you’re not actually part of it.
Via Daring Fireball.
4 responses to “Hilarity: ‘iRate’ Columnist Doesn’t Own iPhone”
“It’s unprecedented and creates a dangerous expectation that the same will happen the next time Apple cuts a product’s price.”
Agreed. Jobs has set a dangerous precedent. It would seem that Apple may now not have as much flexibility in it’s pricing due to the possibility of hoards of babies crying for store credit every time.
oops,I mean “its”