Interesting People mailing list archives
price reductions in technology
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Wed, 5 Sep 2007 19:42:11 -0400
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 netSubject: [dfarber () cs cmu edu: [IP] Apple Slashes iPhone Price -- Anyone Feel Rooked?]
User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.2.1i 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. ----- Forwarded message from David Farber <dfarber () cs cmu edu> ----- Delivered-To: mis () seiden com X-Greylist: from auto-whitelisted by SQLgrey- From: David Farber <dfarber () cs cmu edu> Subject: [IP] Apple Slashes iPhone Price -- Anyone Feel Rooked? Date: Wed, 5 Sep 2007 16:31:50 -0400 To: ip () v2 listbox com X-Listbox-UUID: 136CBC40-5BEF-11DC-BB25-7F88B44AE0C8 Reply-To: dave () farber net List-ID: <ip () v2 listbox com> X-Listbox-List-ID: 247 <ip () v2 listbox com> List-Software: listbox.com v2.0 List-Help: <http://v2.listbox.com/subscription-help.html> List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:unsubscribe-ip () v2 listbox com>,<http://v2.listbox.com/unsubscribe/? &>
List-Subscribe: <mailto:subscribe-ip () v2 listbox com>, <http://v2.listbox.com/subscribe/?list_id=247> Errors-To: listbox+trampoline+247+126024+2e0cc652 () v2 listbox com 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 ------------------------------------------- Archives: http://v2.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now RSS Feed: http://v2.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/ Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com ----- End forwarded message ----- ----- End forwarded message ----- ------------------------------------------- Archives: http://v2.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now RSS Feed: http://v2.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/ Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
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- price reductions in technology David Farber (Sep 05)