One day after the special even, during which Apple renewed its iPod lineup and announced it was dropping the iPhone's price as much as $200, the company announced that it's giving $100 to its frustrated early iPhone customers.
Through an open letter to customers, posted on Apple's web site, the company's charismatic CEO, Steve Jobs, says Apple received several mails after the announcement and that, though he believed taking the iPhone's price down for the Christmas season was the right decision, Apple cares a lot about its loyal customers and especially early adopters.
"I have received hundreds of emails from iPhone customers who are upset about Apple dropping the price of iPhone by $200 two months after it went on sale. After reading every one of these emails, I have some observations and conclusions. [...]
[...] even though we are making the right decision to lower the price of iPhone, and even though the technology road is bumpy, we need to do a better job taking care of our early iPhone customers as we aggressively go after new ones with a lower price. Our early customers trusted us, and we must live up to that trust with our actions in moments like these.
Therefore, we have decided to offer every iPhone customer who purchased an iPhone from either Apple or AT&T, and who is not receiving a rebate or any other consideration, a $100 store credit towards the purchase of any product at an Apple Retail Store or the Apple Online Store. Details are still being worked out and will be posted on Apple's website next week. Stay tuned."
First purchasers of the hottest mobile phone of the year where pretty angry when they learned that they paid an extra $200 just to get the iPhone a little earlier than others.
Some of them did it to support the company and felt very frustrated on the news. They had expressed their anger either by contacting Apple or through several Internet forums, only a few hours after the announcement on Wednesday.
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