What, ME hypocritical?

As anyone who's been following this blog might recall, on June 24th I posted a response to Chris Barylick's screed about not getting respect from from Apple (and AT&T), including the following:

"Apple could very probably charge a couple hundred dollars more than the announced price, stating in advance that they'd be dropping that price by $50 per week for the first month, and still sell nearly as many iPhones over the same period. Frankly, I wish they would. Heck, let the people for whom price is no object pay a little more to get theirs first, if that's what they want."

Well, guess what, just over two months after its introduction they've dropped the price of the iPhone by $200, and I'm inclined to have sympathy for those who are crying foul.

The essential difference between what I suggested on June 24th and what Apple has done is the lack of notice, the lack of even so much as a credible rumor to suggest that the price might be coming down precipitously so soon, which left people like myself, who could afford the iPhone only by digging into credit, and who might just as well have waited for the price drop, had we known to expect it, feeling pretty foolish.

Yeah, I understand about making an attempt to establish a high value for a new product, and rolling back the price as a fallback plan, and also about creating desire for a product that's perceived as being overpriced and then jerking the price down to where those who've held out will be tempted beyond resistance. I also understand about using an initially high price combined with a massive advertising effort to measure the strength/softness of the market, while giving production a chance to get ahead of demand. It's also likely that they didn't make the decision about when and how much to drop the price until after the introduction, and that it's a reaction to softening sales. Evenso, I feel pretty foolish.

The difference between me and those who are screaming bloody murder is that I'll be over it by tomorrow, or the next day at the latest. I made the decision to buy knowing that the price might come down rather dramatically, although I didn't expect it to happen before Thanksgiving. My choice, my responsibility, and no one to blame but myself if I chose badly.

And frankly I'm not certain that I did. $3 per day seems a little steep for the privilege of being among the first owners of a cool new gadget, even one as earthshaking as the iPhone was two months ago, and including the opportunity to get an early start with becoming comfortable with it and learning how to use it. On the other hand, $1 per day for all of that would have been a bargain.

So, while not exactly a happy camper, I'm at least looking at it multidimensionally. I got the iPhone to see if it might change my phone use habits (only turning my phone on to check voicemail, and forgetting to do even that for days at a time), and it has. I still sometimes experience frustration in trying to use my iPhone, but not nearly the anger that used to rise up in me over using my previous phone. It's a huge improvement, and it's not like I got no value at all for that $200.