Thank You, Steve

Question

Dear Steve --
Thank you for offering to give us early IPhone adopters a $100 Apple Store credit. That is very kind of you because you have nothing to apologize for.
People buy electronic and other high-end purchases (like cars, furniture, cell phones, designer fashioins, TVs, etc) and then find within a few weeks, the product "on sale," tied to a rebate or other promotion. Rarely, does the company give prior purchasers the cost differences, especially those bought 60 days before.
I think some folks owe you and Apple an apologize for the childish rants on this site. I don't think they would be happy with anything you did except (1) give them the full $200 difference, (2) give them a free 8 gig IPhone if they chose to originally purchase a 4G -- as if for some reason it won't work any more or they didn't have that option in the first place -- or (3) all of the above.
I wonder what these people will demand when Apple announces an updated IPhone with new features, more storage or a different price as you inevitably will probably early next year?
I am an Apple customer, not an employee. In fact, I'm a pretty nontechnical customer, which is why I love Apple. Your products are not only cutting edge, but cool, fun and easy to use. I've enjoyed my IPhone and find it the best cell phone I've had. I really needed a phone -- mine was literally hanging on one screw -- and I hobbled along for 3 months until the IPhone came out. I have no regrets for purchasing it when it first came out. Being the center of attention was fun while it lasted.
Thanks for the $100 store credit. Again, that's what makes Apple so different from other companies -- you DO listen to your customers. I will using my credit to buy IWorks (which I had planned to but now can get it "free") and maybe an IPhone auto charger.
A Happy IPhone-Apple customer
PS -- Steve, let's see how I get flamed for my thank you note.
Bodhiness
Houston, Texas
PPSS -- You don't even need to apologize for that Performa I bought as my first Apple computer. Heck, you weren't even with the company at the time!!!

Answer 1

I'm actually really happy with Steve's letter, as well as the rebate.
Of course, in this market, Apple had absolutely no legal, and **** near no ethical, responsibility to do that.
But it is we who make the market what it is; Companies offering services, but defined in our culture by their bottom line; and consumers, who often feel like sheep in pasture of price-points and profit margins.
As Mr. Jobs states, Apple enthusiasts (and, dare I say, Apple Fanatics) have a high expectation of Apple. They have grown accustomed to a high-touch, if slightly higher ticketed, line of products, which tend to foresee the customers' desires in the usage experience.
But there is also the Marketplace Experience; the sense of trust, which is fleeting, between consumer and company. In our marketplace, there is a growing expectation that mistrust will be part of the Marketplace Experience.
So kudos to both the complainers (particularly if the complaints were polite, but bewildered) and Apple.
The complainers, in the most notable show of dissatisfaction with a business decision in my memory, demanded a right to be a voice and be heard; to state what they can and can't abide in the Marketplace Experience. In a capitalism, this is necessary, and has been sadly lacking in our current marketplace.
Apple acknowledged to those same consumers that they had a point; while the price drop was aboveboard, and perfectly in their rights, they had an image to maintain; trust to maintain. And they felt the need to express, for once, why they made that particular decision from a modern business sensibility.
So, holy chao, we had a dialogue in the marketplace. In less than 24 hours. At the speed of light. Where the consumer got verbal, and the Company remembered what their bigger purpose, beyond profit, is; to serve the consumer what they want.
And a lot of us crave the trust between consumer and company that most of us Apple enthusiasts, the early-buying, hardcore fans, have had. In my case, that trust worked both ways; I did have some few experiences with Apple that were less than stellar, to say the least, but I trusted their products, their sensibilities, and understood that the market is sometime predatory, and I cut them slack on some of those issues, knowing that pushing the resistance to service was going to leave both parties angry and frustrated.
Well, this time, it happened to enough of the faithful at the same time, and, to tell the truth, because our market has devolved in consumer-orientation for some time, Apple had no responsibility to do bupkis.
But the kicker is that they did something. There will be those saying "It's not enough" and those who say "Why are you coddling those early-adopters?" (Of course, the answer to that should be simple to see for a company with a dedicated and enthusiastic fan-base.)
But the fact that a dialogue and compromise could be achieved so quickly, well, that's a testament to Apple and the consumer; they both recognized that they make the market what it is, and can make it better, since they can't expect it to be perfect.
Pretty neat moment for all involved, I think.