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How Apple Sc****d their Most Loyal Customer

Today was supposed to be Office 2.0 day, with the conference starting tomorrow, pre-conference reception tonight, and the Unconference today. Yet Apple decided to steal the day, and with the flurry of announcement it’s hard to find anything but Apple news on TechMeme. But that’s not the worst.

This years Office 2.0 conference will be an Apple Lovers’s geek-feast. I guess the official version is focusing on mobility, proving that the iPhone is business-ready. Either way, this year all conference attendees receive an iPhone which will be actively used throughout the 2-day event. It’s hardly a gift, considering that the individual registration fee tripled from last year, but it doesn’t change the fact: we’re talking about 500 iPhones.

Conference-organizer Ismael Ghalimi did not receive a special deal from Apple, in fact he was not even allowed to buy the gadgets in batch, he had to do it one-by-one, which created its own logistical nightmare. The ‘default’ was the 4G model, which is now being discontinued, but attendees could pay an extra $100 to receive the 8G model – which today just saw its price dropped from $599 to $399. Of course this is great news for consumers, but I wonder what attendees will think. Will they ask for refunds?

Oh, before I forget, Ismael also purchased 60 iMacs (!) as demo units for the conference. It’s hard to find a more loyal fan/customer – yet today he may feel somewhat inconvenienced (if he even had time to follow the news) by Apple.

Some of the (many) post on the subject: Techdirt, Good Morning Silicon Valley, Apple, Computerworld, dslreports.com, Epicenter, Ars Technica, WebProNews, Digital Noise, IP Democracy, Between the Lines, Guardian Unlimited, Macworld, bub.blicio.us, Digital Daily, Live Coverage …, MacRumors, The Unofficial Apple Weblog, The Utility Belt, BloggingStocks, jkOnTheRun, Techomical, Channel 9, and of course Fake Steve himself.

Update (9/7): Ismael strikes back. On the phone

Comments

  1. Is this the price we pay as early adopters and technology evangelists? We all knew that the price of the iPhone would come down – but not after only two months.

    Seems a little unfair to Ismael and the other attendees. Bummer.

  2. Hi Zoli, I noticed your comments on Bubblicious and it would seem bad that the two events occurred at the same time. As for pricing of the new iPhones, we’ve all been taught in school that the innovators/early adopters will always pay a hefty price for new innovation. The fact that technology changes so much faster than ever before and that Apple actually kept up with the demand shows that they knew what their technology diffusion S curve was going to look like. Basically, they met their quota at the end of 2 months.

  3. 1992 – purchased revolutionary Macintosh IIvi at an astounding 5K. Discontinued after six months and reintroduced as the Centris 610 at half the cost and twice the horsepower.

    This is price that early adopters have always paid 🙂

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