Apple Loyalty: We Will Only Know When The Next Cool Thing Comes Out
More buzzing today about the iPhone price drop, and all the griping it has caused:
[from IPhone Owners Crying Foul Over Price Cut by Katie Hafner and Brad Stone][...]
[the history of very fast price drops in cell phones] must have been what Apple was counting on. But the size and speed of the price cut alienated some of Apple’s most loyal supporters.
[...]
Mr. Jobs said the cuts were precipitated by a desire to build demand aggressively for the product in the coming holiday shopping season. Analysts, however, wondered if it was indicative of sagging demand for the expensive phone.
[...]
Rob Enderle, president of the Enderle Group, a market research firm in San Jose, Calif., was skeptical of the store credit.
“A $100 credit could be perceived as adding insult to injury,” said Mr. Enderle, noting that store credits are seldom well received. “It’s a way to make you go buy something else, and gives the company a chance to make more money.”
But Mr. Enderle might be underestimating the sheer power of Apple loyalty.
Sounds like Rob is one of the unhappy early buyers himself. And we don't know what motivated Jobs to take the aggressive move, but I am betting on more souped up iPhones, and a decent camera, before Xmas.
Like some others, I think that the iPod Touch is an extremely cool toy, and I can't wait for mine to arrive (on or around 2 October). I am too stuck on having a small phone with a great camera (n95) to move to iPhone, now.
Regarding customer loyalty, what no one seems to be saying is that we will only know the true impact of the price drop when Apple rolls out the next cool thing. If Apple loyalists don't line up outside the stores the night before the release of the Apple iWidget (whatever the next shiny thing is) then, and only then, will we be able to judge the real impact of this brouhaha, and whether it is a PR hiccup or a serious defection of loyalists.
My bet is on hiccup.
The only reason I'm not irritated by the store credit is that I already had plans to buy a new laptop. So that's where the $100 cash probably would have gone anyway.
If Apple does release a seriously upgraded iPhone less than 6 months after launch of the first, I'd expect a lot of outrage. It's almost like Apple is trying to punish the early adopters.
Posted by: Adam Kalsey | September 07, 2007 at 09:41 AM
Well, as I've written in my post on this subject I actually doubt that people will be lining up again - or at least I doubt that the need to line up for an Apple device ever again.
Why do people line up for a new device? Because it'll be exclusive and they want it first. It looks like Apple are trying to remove that allure of exclusivity because they are trying to be 'the common man's technology manufacturer'.
I would be surprised if Apple release anything in limited quantities again as it's not in keeping with what looks to be their new strategy.
Posted by: Ben Metcalfe | September 07, 2007 at 04:09 PM
I can understand the gripes only so far. If I had purchased an iPhone and two months later it was $200 cheaper, I might feel a burn. I certainly know what it feels like to buy a Mac then discover a few months later the new model makes mine look like a manky pad of paper with a light bulb stuck in it, but I challenge anyone to show me a store with a two month price drop guarantee. All technology gets cheaper once you bring it home. I thought everybody was used to that by now.
Rob Enderle is mostly an anti-Mac hack. I don't put much weight into what he has to say. He's being cynical. Apple didn't have to offer a $100 rebate of store credit.
Sometimes I think it's popular to gripe about Apple regardless of whether the gripe has any merit or not.
~Douglas
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Posted by: Douglas Cootey | September 10, 2007 at 10:46 AM