When Apple announced the iPhone back in January, the intial reaction was a loud ovation and drooling faces from my fellow Apple Whores, er, Fans. Considering this was one of the most overhyped and anticipated gadgets in gadget history, the price point of $500 to purchase this piece of art looked like an obvious ploy for Apple to take advantage of those waiting 2+ years for this gadget.
According to the online research firm, Compete, consumers (even early adopters) are going to have a hard time paying $500 for the iPhone. It must be noted that they only surveyed 349 people so this is not the best sample size to really justify the claim, but I think it’s a good representation of what I’ve heard from friends and colleagues about the pricing issue. Compete claims that $300 is going to be the magic number for the mass market to really drop their current calling plans and switch over to AT&T.
Apple has become a master of practicing the “underpromise and overdeliver” campaigns. Just recently, they promised to deliver their New Airport Extreme Base Stations (their router for you non-Apple folk) at the end of February, but instead, surprised their customers by delivering them before the first week of February ended! Another example is when they announced the pricing of the upcoming AppleTV would be $399, but when customers went to purchase, they were being sold for $299.
At the end of the day, I think the power of the market will eventually force Apple to lower the prices of the iPhones, especially since this is the one gadget Steve Jobs is gambling big on. With gains in the computer market share slowing down and the increased competition in the mp3 market, Steve is looking to hit another home run that will carry Apple for at least another decade.
So, what do you think of the iPhone and how much would you pay for it?
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hmmm lets see about $10,000.
Get over it. It’s just a phone and an ipod put together. I would not consider buying it for the fact you are stuck with AT&T as a carrier.
This is just another example of superior marketing. Plus, it will be junk in 6 months due to a newer version.