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 Getting iRipped OffPosted on Sep 6, 2007WASHINGTON—If I were an iPhone owner, I’d be hopping mad. I’d be iRate. Just 10 weeks ago, otherwise sane individuals were camping overnight in long lines for the privilege of paying $599 for a mobile phone. These people were fully aware that most wireless companies will give you a basic phone for free, but the object of their ardor was anything but basic. It was a lifestyle choice. It was an advertisement for oneself. It was a shiny little slice of the future, a thin slab of cool. So what if it cost, gulp, six hundred bucks? How could anyone get hung up over anything so prosaic as the price? But when CEO Steve Jobs announced Wednesday that Apple was slashing the iPhone’s price by a third—meaning that owning a slice of the future now sets you back only $399—the iPhone Internet forums lit up with buyers who felt they’d been taken for chumps. On the everythingiPhone forum, someone with the screen name “Silverado” posted: “So much for a consumer-oriented company. This was my first Apple product and it will be my last.” And on the macrumors site, “mac17” wrote that he intended to e-mail Jobs a harangue that begins, “As a loyal Apple customer I feel like I and other iPhone customers are being treated like dirt.” Jobs didn’t go out of his way to make them feel any better. “That’s technology,” he told USA Today. “If they bought it this morning, they should go back to where they bought it and talk to them. If they bought it a month ago, well, that’s what happens in technology.” Advertisement Still, you’ve got to hand it to the man for knowing his customer base. Better than anyone else in the silicon-based industries, Jobs understands that people adopt new technology not so much because of what it does, but because of what it promises. And he understands that as long as you promise something that no iWhatever can possibly deliver—a changed life, basically—then you can keep the customers coming back. What the iPhone does is package a lot of functions into one sleek device—telephone, music, e-mail, Web browsing, photos. What it promises is that it will simplify and unclutter your life. We go through each day being bombarded with inputs from every direction; we’re always having to come up with data—phone numbers, e-mail addresses—that we’ve left somewhere else, on some other machine; we leave the laptop home and wish we’d taken it, or lug it around all day without using it. Here, according to the promise, is an elegant little machine that can serve as portal, organizer, window on the world. Here, we’re promised, is control. The few people I know who own iPhones seem to love them, but they haven’t reported a marked improvement in the quality of their lives. They still have too much work to do and too little time; they still can’t quite find that one piece of information they need right now. But hey, maybe the next-generation iPhone will do the trick—and you know that Jobs has one on the drawing board. The fact is that in terms of miniaturization and number of features, some gadgets are already reaching their practical limits. I have big fingers; there is no way I could possibly thumb out an e-mail on a keyboard smaller than the one on my current BlackBerry. The same physical limitation applies to cell phone keypads. And a 10-megapixel digital camera is no better for taking family snapshots than one that shoots a mere 6 megapixels. Occasionally, there’s a real breakthrough. But mostly, what we’re getting from the purveyors of electronic devices are incremental advances and improved packaging. Jobs was quick to realize that you have to sell image along with the gizmo. 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. Eventually, you understood, everybody would have one—as happened with the iPod. But after spending $599 for a cell phone, the aura of supercool should have lasted longer than a couple of months. Sorry if you feel cheated. As the man said, that’s technology. Eugene Robinson’s e-mail address is eugenerobinson(at)washpost.com. © 2007, Washington Post Writers Group Elsewhere: . CommentsAre you a Truthdig member yet? Login now, or register with Truthdig. Add Your Comment
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By Steve, September 12, 2007 at 12:04 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
I fell in love with the vcr the very time I saw it exhibited. I paid $750 for my first one and the tapes cost me $7,50 each. You can buy one today for so little that it has now become an expendable item in which few people bother to repair them and simply throw them away. Of course, this is true for every new technology in which the early sales prices reflect the R&D;costs. The probleem Steve Jobs experienced is that his new product became so popular and acceptable that these costs were soon paid for and the decreased prices were made sooner than he might have expected to charge.
Report thisBy Portlandman, September 12, 2007 at 1:58 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
Have you all heard about the new Apple product coming out? It’s called the I-sheep, costs $799 and looks cool. It comes in several snappy colors, emits electronic radio waves that makes close observers view you as sexy, muscular, attractive and intelligent. Its release is expected early next month, and it is suggested you start camping out today!
Report thisBy DennisD, September 8, 2007 at 3:19 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
And the relevance of this story is….......I’m waiting Eugene!
Report thisBy RickinSF, September 7, 2007 at 6:22 pm #
“What the iPhone does is package a lot of functions into one sleek devicetelephone, music, e-mail, Web browsing, photos.”
Great! Now when an iPhone is mislaid, lost or stolen, one can lose, literally, everything.
And one has paid $599 or $399 for the convenience
Report thisBy Dr. Knowitall, PhD, PhD, September 7, 2007 at 5:32 pm #
Don’t act too fast. In just a few days I’m introducing my new Omnipophone. It does everything iPhone does plus it goes out everyday to do your job, it raises your kids, it does shopping you don’t want to do, it pays your bills and your mortgage, takes care of your lawn, maintains your house, goes to night school for you, services your Beamer and has your orgasims, leaving you completely free to do whatever you want and all at the low, low cost of $379.99.
Report thisBy protagonia, September 7, 2007 at 2:28 pm #
My Treo 700 will hold up until it’s no longer in the hands of ATT alone. By then the bugs will have been sorted (Scrolling for phone numbers, etc.).
I need my I Existence to be free of things that own me.
Report thisBy mackTN, September 7, 2007 at 1:42 pm #
Admit it, people. You bought a toy and paid dearly for it. In your fervor to have this fantastic machine, you failed to also compute the charges and exhorbitant taxes that come with using the dern thing. And with AT&T;has the provider, I suggest you closely monitor your monthly bill. They are superior at sneaking little extra charges on your bills every month & when you ask about them, they say “the government did that!”
And if you don’t pay your $300/month bill each month when it is due, you’ll innocently dial your mom one day and get the AT&T;collection office who has interrupted your service until they get paid.
“We can take your payment now, ma’am. What’s the routing number on your personal check?”
You know, if we all boycotted cell phones for a week—if we all cancelled our current services on just one day, we might get a little respect.
Report thisBy Howard Mandel, September 7, 2007 at 1:25 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
The media, Truthdig included, just love to pump up the controversy. I’ve been using Apple computers since I worked on a catalog for the first Apple dealer in New York. The Apple II made me fall in love with Apple, both as a computer and a company. Since then, I have purchsed virtually every Apple product ever made.
My company was a beta test site in the early years, and if any rule of thumb exists regarding buying into emerging technologies it is “don’t buy the first one”. The first one is not for the serious user, its for the vanity user.
Steve Jobs is the most visionary man in America, and has built a daunting list of world-transforming achievements. This unprecendented success seems to constantly invite knee-jerk criticism fueled by corporate fear that his latest product will upset their revenue projections.
If you shelled out $600 bucks for a 8GB iPhone (too small, I’m waiting for more storage) you got what you paid for… the right to say “I had it first!”
Report thisBy boggs, September 7, 2007 at 1:11 pm #
I think the idiots who waited in long lines to pay the huge amount for the toys so they could be first, had it coming!
Report thisThey completely disgrace the human race who is supposed to have an intellect above that of a chair!
By Vectorbabe, September 7, 2007 at 8:25 am #
So it only took a day for the hoards of unhappy iPhone early adopters to force Apple to issue a $100 credit at any Apple store. (And what if you don’t live near an Apple store? Will the online store accept these credits? And is a credit for something that you didn’t really need, or will have to pay additional to buy be enough?)
I’m sick of the early adopters bitcin’ and moanin’ that they bought something that was too expensive and then the price came down.
Who was it who tied them up and forced them to line up (some for over 24 hours) to be the first to own an iPhone?
Who was it who told the speculators to buy two, three, or four phones hoping to make a killing on eBay?
Who was it who kept the masses from flocking to the stores which meant that by 4 o’clock that afternoon it was possible to stroll into the Apple SOHO store and buy an iPhone with no waiting and no problems.
I agree that the iPhone has been a hit. But it hasn’t been anything near a runaway blockbuster that caused huge backlogs of orders and customers hungry for a sale.
The iPhone did rather well and then Apple and ATT decided to lower the price. Duhhhh! This happens all the time. It’s called retail.
But the idea that Apple “owed” its customers anything only shows that the Apple business model is based 80% on terrific products, and 20% on a cult mentality.
The only reason Apple has decided to give this credit (usefulness unknown) was they didn’t want to piss off the faithful.
Report thisBy BoDo, September 7, 2007 at 8:06 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
I once tried Apple. Never again. They are not only a gimmick marketer, but they are a cult. True believers. Yes, I wanted to escape the foul clutches of Bill Gates. Well, here’s what I learned: Bill Gates is successful because he actually delivers software that works, and works every time you use it (until the system crashes). Apples work only when the mood takes them, and tech support assumes (a) it’s okay for software to only work now and then and (b) if there’s a problem, then the customer is simply not smart enough. Screw Apple. However, we do need to break the monopolistic stranglehold that Microsoft’s marketing has created. There used to be dozens of different operating programs and a lot of them worked great. And I’ll never forgive MS for destroying WordPerfect, a program that makes Word look like a manual typewriter. But Apple? Drop dead!
Report thisBy Inherit The Wind, September 7, 2007 at 5:05 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
I’m sorry, but anyone who BOTHERED to look at what was spec’d out for the iPhone ahead of time was already scratching their heads. There are plenty of PDAs out there that do everything the iPhone does but don’t have the same “cool” touch-screen.
I was immediately concerned about three things (before it was released): 1) the foot-print was larger than most c-phones and even many PDAs (like my HTC Wizard) and 2) the battery is not replaceable. Only Blackberry seems to be able to get away with that, but B/B has a very long bat life and isn’t your MP3 player. 3) Jobs 20-year long penchant for dictating what you need with NO flexibility. If St. Steve doesn’t include it, you don’t need it.
This last egotistical failure nearly sank the original MacIntosh computer—you couldn’t open it without voiding the warranty, despite the Apple, Apple II, Apple III and IBMs ALL being open architecture. Plus there was no hard drive, and it cost a fortune. But it was “cool” so the Apple ditto-heads rushed to buy it.
When Jobs left Apple to design and sell the NeXT computer, his arrogant ego led him to make the same mistakes: no hard-drive, no diskette, just a re-writable optical disk that had EVERYTHING on it, including the op-system…Lots of THOSE puppies still in service, right? NOT!
My wife got a miniature iPod as a gift—she couldn’t figure out what to do with it but it didn’t matter—in 2 months the battery failed and wouldn’t hold a charge…since you couldn’t replace the battery it meant a trip to the Apple store. She trashed it before I could get it there.
But my PDA has all the functions of the iPhone. True, it can only take 2 gig memory chips, but they are replaceble—so 4 easily equals the iPhone’s 8 gigs. It has a pull-out keyboard that works. It plays MP3s, it plays movies, both WAVE and AVI. You can add programs you want to it, like GPS. Its BlueTooth works with stereo headphones, car-links and GPS units. And it’s a cell-phone and eMail tool as well.
And I can carry a spare battery so if I’m in a cab or on the street and the phone runs out, I’m not SOL, I switch batteries.
Plus, it cost me $250, not $599. But it’s not “cool”.
You want to be “cool”? You pay for it!
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