Apple today, along with announcing new iPods, end-of-life’d the 4GB iPhone and dropped the 8GB iPhone price by $200 to $399.
While Apple maintains a 14 day price match guarantee, and is honoring it for iPhones purchased during the previous 14 days, there doesn’t appear to be much in the way of a financial refund or rebate for early adopters, or “rollout buyers” as quoted to me by an Apple representative.
In other words, if you were among the first to purchase the iPhone and contribute to the marketing effort through the coolness factor, word-of-mouth, or beta testing, Apple’s message to you is “Suck it.”
That is the technology game for first movers and I accept that, however, I’d drop cash without hesitation on a second phone if they were offering some sort of credit/rebate. Maybe I’ll pull out the patented “strongly worded letter,” just to see where it gets me.
p.s. The new iPods are pretty cool. The Fat Nano and 160GB iPod Classic have the most appeal to me, put I see the iPod Touch having the most appeal for those who haven’t dipped into the iPhone pool yet.
Update 9/6/07
Apple responded to the criticisms of rollout buyers today and will be offering a $100 store credit to said purchasesers, as detailed in Steve Jobs Open Letter to iPhone Owners.
as of this writing.