My opinion about Apple's price cut (2)

I wanted to give you my reaction and thoughts about the Apple's price cut for his Iphone. This news has made the headlines those past days worldwide, and is very interesting on a customer relationship point of view.

So what happened? The Iphone's launch has probably created the most hyped product ever. A new phone that was mean to change the face of the mobile phone market. However, a lot of people were wondering about the price of the phone, $599, and also the $69 minimum monthly plan you had to own to get the phone.

But two months afterward, as Steve Jobs was launching his new ranges of Ipod, the CEO of Apple decided to abandon the 4Gb version of his Iphone, and also to cut the price of the 8Gb version of 30%, from $599 to $399. This cut has been announced to stimulate holidays sales, according to jobs.

Apple's product, especially Ipods, are used to decrease prices every 6 months, offering more memory capacity at each new model. It is also not uncommon to lower prices for Christmas period... But the fact is that we are in the early September, we have not even entered in Fall. In my opinion, this cut shows that Iphones sales have not been as good as expected, and to try to keep back in track, Apple had to cut his price to touch new customer segments.

But the problem with this technique is that the early adopter that bought the Iphone at its launch feel like they are the dumb asses. They paid $600 a phone to show off two months ago, where as two months afterward most of the people can afford a $400 version.

More than feeling like the dumb ass, Apple's strategy is very bad on a customer relationship management point of view. Apple has a niche market, build around customers with a high affection for the apple brand. My information system teacher in Ipag said something very true. There are Windows users, and Mac's lovers. I will hard to find windows customers loving the Microsofts software.
To calm the anger of its early adopters that bought the first versions of Iphones, Steve Jobs had to offer a day after his announcement a $100 credit to this clients. But who said these disappointed clients want to buy Apple's products anymore?


These clients have been highly deceived by Apple. They bought this Iphone of course for its quality, but also to be able to reach a certain status and to affirm themselves as early adopters. Having an Iphone was the best way for them to get social empathy and recognition, for their early adopter status.

But this fact has been erased by Apple's price cut, that will first allow most of the customers to buy an Iphone, but also, to place them in a situation where they feel fooled by their brand. A brand that has always been the symbol of differentiation: " I am not like 95% of people that owns a PC".
We then hit deeply the trust its clients can have in this brand. And this is a big hit, whereas its best clients have probably bought the product while it has been launched.

Will this story hit Apple? That is for sure, even though most of its clientele will still love its products. I am just wondering if the whole story of this Iphone sounds more like a failure than a success. As a result, the Apple's stocks value are decreasing.
A good part about the story is that it gave a large exposition to Steve Jobs these past days (even though it has been mainly negative).

What do you think about it?