[IP] price reductions in technology

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: mis@seiden.com
Date: September 5, 2007 6:31:19 PM EDT
To: dave@farber.net
Subject: price reductions in technology

Date: Wed, 5 Sep 2007 15:28:27 -0700
From: mis@seiden.com
To: lauren@vortex.com
Cc: dave@farber.net
Subject: [dfarber@cs.cmu.edu: [IP] Apple Slashes iPhone Price --  
Anyone Feel Rooked?]
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lauren,

greetings, long time no see, etc.

i am completely mystified by your argument.

in everything else technological, price cuts happen all the time.  are
you also disappointed when the 500G hard drive you bought is now 30%
less only a few months later?

particularly since price is a function of manufacturing volume, one
would think that a well-selling product should now be able to have
lower prices, more competitive with those subsidized and windows
mobile phones.

i haven't bought an iphone for several reasons, including the high
price, lock-in, non-replaceable battery, slippery case, slow network,
no gps, recessed headphone jack (but also how painful it is to type
correctly on that silly onscreen keyboard).  nice web browser, though.

i welcome any improvements in these areas.  i would not feel rooked at
all if they fixed any of these product defects!  as an early adopter i
*would* feel rooked if improvements in the software were only applied
to the newly shipping devices, as has been traditionally the case in
consumer electronics, and in particular, ipod (and also a sad
tradition for apple desktop products).

for example, only the newer ipods have the ability to search.  my 60GB
photo ipod has had software updates, but not including any new
features in the user interface (that i have noticed).

for another older example, you may remember apple once promised that
some of their 68k macs would have powerpc co-processor upgrades which,
as it turns out, never materialized.

(so i figure no longer believe the hopeful reality distortion that
defects will be fixed in the rosy future.  if you like the device, buy
it.  if not, don't.)

i also welcome price cuts, particularly on apple products which often
seem overpriced to appeal to technoelite early adopters and those who
fancy themselves as elite.

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Subject: [IP] Apple Slashes iPhone Price -- Anyone Feel Rooked?
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Begin forwarded message:

From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren@vortex.com>
Date: September 5, 2007 4:22:25 PM EDT
To: dave@farber.net
Cc: lauren@vortex.com
Subject: Apple Slashes iPhone Price -- Anyone Feel Rooked?



              Apple Slashes iPhone Price -- Anyone Feel Rooked?

                 http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000282.html


Greetings.  Perhaps some observers will just consider this to be
standard operating business practices for Apple, but you really
gotta give Apple credit for raw guts.

Today, in conjunction with Steve "our customers love us so much that
we can do pretty much whatever we want" Jobs' announcement of yet
more iPod incarnations, Apple slashed the price of the top iPhone
model by one-third, and discontinued the lower-rung unit.

If most any other technology firm tried to pull such a stunt only
two months after a massive publicity campaign and related product
introduction, there would likely be lynch mobs forming outside
corporate headquarters.

But one suspects that most Apple acolytes may protesteth not, even
after forking over six bills so recently (without any cellular
carrier subsidies, either).

Will any early adopter iPhone customers complain that perhaps they
were just a wee bit taken advantage of by the timing of these
developments?  Or will they just smile and stare blankly at the
glossy face of their iPhones, while chanting an Apple-inspired
version of the Maha Mantra?

I may be a bit old fashioned when it comes to consumerism, and maybe
I'm out of touch in thinking that $200 is a significant amount of
money, but it seems to me that a bunch of people just got screwed.

--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren@vortex.com or lauren@pfir.org
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
http://www.pfir.org/lauren
Co-Founder, PFIR
   - People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Founder, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com



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