Apple has a long history of milking early adopters. Even the crappy products (remember the Newton? the Mac Cube?) would sell a few hundred thousand units to the faithful before those faithful learned the sad truth. But just as they were learning that truth, along would come Steve Jobs (okay, not in the case of the Newton, but generally) gleefully proffering the real fantastic product people had been expecting months before. Then those same early adopters, reenergized, would buy all over again, whether it was an iMac, iPod, MacBook, iPhone, whatever. Why should we think this week’s Verizon iPhone announcement is any different?
Where’s the Long Term Evolution (LTE) network? Where’s surfing while talking? Where’s the damned white case?
June.
We’ve been here before, remember? The first iPhone worked only on AT&T’s slower Edge network so the early adopters all upgraded to 3G a few months later, paying again. Worse still there was that big price drop only weeks after the original iPhone introduction when Apple clearly intended to punish the faithful for being, well, faithful.
What will happen if, come February, AT&T drops its iPhone 4 price to $99? Verizon will follow suit, that’s what, and a million early adopters will have been burned.
Steve Jobs can’t help himself. It’s in his blood.
Serves ’em right. If they can’t learn the basic facts of life, they deserve to be screwed.
It’s a harsh world out there. We don’t need any more sheeple to swallow the nonsense coming down from on high. There are too many of them around already. Look at all the saps who voted for Obama.
Oh, it’s not that Obama was worse that the other jerk running for office. It’s that a lot of the people voting for him apparently believed that he was going to produce, “Change that you can believe in.”
Huh. I’m still glad I voted for Obama.
And I think his administration has, in fact, produced real and substantive change. In this case, I’m a realist, so I didn’t expect the man to wear a red cape. I do believe he has brought about as much change as he can, though.
Wow. Real rocket science here. Hey just for kicks lemme ask, who should the saps have voted for?
They should have voted for Donald Duck. Then maybe the Congress or the Supreme Court would have had the gonads to change the system. Ha-ha. Fat chance of that happening. They’re all too busy slopping at the trough and lying to the people.
And that’s not rocket sciense, that’s plain old human nature.
Ron Paul
Yeah because what America really needs is a racist homophobic president.
Well I’m glad you’re able to offer some constructive solutions.
“Every generation needs a new revolution” — Thomas Jefferson.
“Any one careless enough to discuss politics or religion in public deserves to be horse whipped” — Charles Moorehead.
Ralph Nadder.
Nader.
Never forget: Nader gave us Bush.
Ron Paul and Ralph Nader together on a ticket to unite America in TeH cRaZY.
I voted for Nader in 2000. In Florida.
My bad.
It wouldn’t have mattered.
As opposed to the idiots who voted for McCain and Caribou Barbie?
Suckers who think they somehow deserve the best of it are always the ultimate chumps. Americans could stand to learn from the Russians. They have a great proverb: “Sometimes the only road is full of rocks.”
I was servered right by Apple. Without asking, I received a refund for the price drop on the original iPhone. The iPhone 3G came out a full year later, when I, like other early adopters were eligible for the same upgrade price as new users. I think the author was fooled…
Apple offered the refund only after the huge public relations nightmare it brought on itself by not doing so earlier, and as a previous early adopter wouldn’t it have been nice had apple offered you a better deal than new users? But they didn’t and you’re still defending them.
Don’t kid yourself Apple rapes all of it’s customers, but particularly it’s early adopters, and it does so in a way that makes them all squirm with pleasure while lining up to pay ridiculous money for the next gadget.
Yep, I learned.. Eventually.. (and yes, I have a Cube, it’s a great little computer but was about 2x too expensive at the time..)
That’s why I skipped the iPad, and will likely skip iPhone 4 until it has an LTE variant (which is easy enough as I have until Jun/Jul on my 3GS contract anyway)
What choice did those saps have?
A senile McCain and an mental midget Pallin?
Either way, we still have Bush… Obama has extended virtually all of his policies from Taxes, to rescue of GM (which I think was necessary and went well), Iraq, Afghanistan.
Materially, nothing has changed except the rhetoric is of a much higher caliper.
That’s a pretty knee-jerk response, Charles. Maybe take your politics to a more appropriate venue.
I think the article was about a company promoting a product, not delivering said product in its marketed fashion and then releasing the /real/ product, all the while reaping the rewards of punishing their best customers.
That’s not a knee-jerk response, Michael. That’s a response based on a review of why great civilizations collapse at their pinnacle of power.
You’re right that it certainly was an off topic rant. But it made me feel so much better. (Human nature, you know.)
Bob,
Please delete all my off topic comments.
Well Mr. Moorehead, I may have voted for Obama but I’d hardly consider myself a ‘sap’. However, after looking at your website – http://www.moneymagic1-2-3.com – I guess I’m not surprised by your immediate negativity and anti-Obama comments. And you, Oh great one with all the answers, want to show me how to better live my life … yea, right pal. Thanks but no thanks.
Thanks for looking at my website, NutCracker. If you didn’t get any value from it, well you know what free advice is worth.
You might have noticed that my website is meant for people who are willing to make some changes and take some limited risks to have a better life. But if you are satisfied with your life the way it is, there is no reason to waste any of your time on my website.
I can’t take any credit for being a Great One. The revelations were a gift from the universe because I was searching for answers and eventually opened my mind to new possibilities.
The iPhone 3G came out a year after the first iPhone. The early adopters had already gotten their iPhones in the first few weeks it was available; the people who “all upgraded to 3G a few months later” were ones who had bought it MONTHS after the iPhone was out in the public.
Where did Apple promise all this stuff? Just because you hoped for it doesn’t mean Apple promised to give it to you. The 1st iPhone was bought on faith, but this phone, well if you hoped for magic and only got an iPhone 4 then you were disappointed for free. if you buy this phone expecting more than an iPhone 4, then you’re a fool. It says iPhone 4 right there.
I suspect that the iPhone intro’d this year won’t have LTE or any 4G technology. And the form factor will be close to identical. 2012 phone will probably be a major form factor revision.
I think you’re right. The iPhone5 will be an iPhone 4GS with a speedier (dual core?) chip. Apple doesn’t change casings on its computers very often (the iPod sage is an exception except for the iPod Touch). The changes are incremental and functional.
As for only being available for 5 months or so until the next revision, how does that compare with the latest Android device? These seem to have a half-life of 20 days. Buyers remorse is a fact of life in advancing technology. LTE is also currently in its gestational early adopter phase. Next years buyers will have more battery efficient chips, more pervasive networks, etc. The only protection is to be informed and t jump in when new features are an actual benefit not a promise. Verizon iPhone buyers feel they’ve been waiting 3 years so they’ll be a mixture of immediate purchasers and those willing to wait another 6 months.
I was thinking the same thing Bob…George Lucas is good at the same staged delivery of his products too. Unfortunately these adopters are usually gadget guys looking to impress, so upgrading constantly actually feeds their lifestyle…and discounts mine (when I buy G2 or 3 on the clearance shelf a couple of years later). Keep it up fan boys! I love the discounts…
My phone is not as good as an iPhone, but it was FREE. My cell phone company is not the best, but they have service everywhere I need it and they provide it at a very competitive FIXED price.
I shopped around. I did the research. I found the best service for my needs. It didn’t involve Apple.
In another industry loyal customers bought their cars for years not realizing the quality was lacking. It wasn’t until they were almost bankrupt and in need of government help that they got the message.
Apple is making great products, no question. However they are not the only show in town. There is real competition out there. They do not lave a lock on tablets. They do not have a lock on video entertainment. They will not earn these markets by messing with their customers.
“I shopped around. I did the research. I found the best service for my needs. It didn’t involve Apple.” Same here, over and over again. Deserves repeating.
Although I think the iPhone is a nice product, I also shopped and couldn’t justify the cost. I instead went with an older Palm Treo 755p (that escaped the “smarter” phone additional fees demanded by the carrier). It has good coverage and is a smart enough phone for my needs. Ended up with $65/month for two Treos vs. one iPhone $99/month (at the time). I do use an iPod Touch on WiFi at work and home quite a bit, so I realize it would be nice to have that functionality everywhere. Just can’t justify it.
Nicely said. Some people can self justify the cost. I never could. The benefit to cost ratio for Apple products has never been there for me for any of their products. They’re always too expensive for what you’re getting compared to available alternatives.
So Bob, you haven’t figured out the program yet?
Here’s how it goes – The early adopters also own Apple stock – They get in line (long lines) to buy the latest/greatest no matter what (even though 99% of the time it’s good) – This creates lots of press – Lots of press gets normal people to buy – Apple sells a ton – Apple’s stock goes up. Wash/Rinse/Repeat
It costs the early adopter / stock owners nothing – They come out way, way ahead 😉
Every smart business milks the early adopters. Show me one that doesn’t and I’ll show you a company that needs to hire a new CEO.
You wrote, “Where’s the Long Term Evolution (LTE) network? Where’s surfing while talking? Where’s the damned white case?”
Uhm, when LTE hits over 200 major markets, then you can complain, until then, Apple has a valid reason for not introducing a device that can’t run over Verizon’s hyped network. Every little thing about Apple is scrutinized. Imagine the lawsuits if someone gets their Verizon iPhone 4G LTE and doesn’t get 4G speeds. Apple got sued when the 3G was not “twice as fast” as the EDGE iPhone.
You know enough about tech to know why Apple’s not responsible for surfing while talking. And, as for the white iPhone, the only person responsible for that is you. Apple didn’t promise that anyone could buy a white iPhone on Verizon. Someone’s predictions blog did that.
You wrote, “The first iPhone worked only on AT&T’s slower Edge network so the early adopters all upgraded to 3G a few months later”
Your memory is failing you. There was no 3G iPhone, “a few months later”. At least get your facts straight. And, like above, 3G had not reached 200 major markets, and 90+% of the US population was not yet covered. One reason why T-Mobile’s G1 launch was so bad was because T-Mo only had 3G in about 20 cities. User experience is part and parcel of Apple’s DNA, and selling devices that can’t utilize their identifying bit of differentiation is not very cool.
You wrote, “Worse still there was that big price drop only weeks after the original iPhone introduction when Apple clearly intended to punish the faithful for being, well, faithful.” LOL, okay, you’re being facetious, because I KNOW you’re not that stupid.
As you well know, if the iPhone price dropped to $99, that is the subsidized price, and Apple would still get their $600. In other words, the price drop would have nothing to do with Apple, but with the marketing plan of AT&T and Verizon, but you knew that.
“What will happen if, come February, AT&T drops its iPhone 4 price to $99? Verizon will follow suit, that’s what, and a million early adopters will have been burned.”
I don’t follow you, Bob. Verizon has a 30-day return policy so if someone buys on February 3 (the earliest day you can order) and VZN drops the price 20 days later, you can take you phone back and return it. Then buy the new one at the lower price. How are millions burned?
Sure, Apple (and every other technology innovator) milks early adopters to some extent.
But what does that have to do with the Verizon iPhone 4?
– the LTE network is barely deployed, and Apple probably hasn’t even finished developing and certifying an LTE iPhone.
– surfing while talking on CDMA/EV-DO isn’t yet implemented on Verizon. Is that Apple’s fault?
– the missing white case doesn’t affect the iPhone’s value and has nothing to do with the Verizon launch anyway (except for that crazy Cringely prediction on Jan. 4).
– yes, the iPhone 4 will probably cost a lot less after next June, and smart patient people will wait the extra six months. Which doesn’t mean that there isn’t a legitimate demand for the iPhone 4 now, no matter what phone company it runs on. The Verizon iPhone 4 is not an iPhone 5, or even an iPhone 4.5. It does about the same things the regular iPhone 4 does, and strangely enough costs the same price.
To summarize: it does everything it promises to, it costs the same as on other networks, it’s now available to a whole lot of people who have been clamoring for it. But since it doesn’t do everything that next summer’s model might be going to do, and since the price will no doubt be reduced after the next model is available, it’s obviously an evil plot to cheat innocent customers. Right.
I have a simple rule that allows me to enjoy all that Apple goodness without the early adopter penalty. I only buy used Apple equipment. I let someone else take the hit. My only exception was my new iPad, which I don’t regret for a second spending the money on.
Here’s a Machiavellian idea: What if AT&T announced on Feb. 1 that it was dropping the price of an iPhone 4 by $100 for six weeks. How much will that cost AT&T? Probably not much since they’ve already locked so many people into long-term contracts. But Verizon would have to match it and if they sign up a million iPhone customers, then AT&T’s little gambit just cost Verizon $100 million.
I think Generals at the Pentagon call that “asymetrical warfare.” Anyone?
Brilliant. But don’t give AT&T any ideas. My memory is long and has no love for that company.
Verizon Wireless won’t worry about that. They have a realistic answer.
Pick your Android phone, Any phone. They are outselling Apples phone anyway. Also, as an added bonus, it can even be used as a phone!
Apple fanatics will spend the extra money for the Apple product, the rest will get a better phone. AT&T will still lose customers because they have the worst customer service and billing in the industry.
So, how again does Verizon (or T-Mobil for that matter) lose??
I find your headline and tone silly and flat out wrong in a couple ways. Early adopters are, I think, more interested in the idea of being first, not in being thrifty. A higher price is actually beneficial to an early adopter because it makes having the item more exclusive. Now there may be people who spend more than they can afford on new products and maybe we need more GGA (Gadget Geeks Anonymous) groups. But that was their choice.
Want-to-be early adopters(me), those with insufficient resources to pay the price for being a true early adopter, are not milked because we have to wait. We may feel the psychological pain, but our wallets don’t suffer. I waited for the 3G and then the 4. I will miss the 4G or the 5, what ever they call the iPhone this summer.
I think Google is much more dangerous for the early adopter. Apple puts out one phone a year. ATT and the other carriers lock us into two year cycles, not Apple. So because I’m only a wantabe early adopter, by staying with Apple, I have a year of joy and a year of longing. Android users have to deal with a new phone coming out every month or so. I can’t imagine the pain of an early adopter on the Android side. And the penalties for early termination? That is truly milking the early adopter. And that is the carriers.
And another thing, the Newton and the Cube were wonders. They may have be “crappy” compared to what came after them, maybe. Yes, the Newton’s reach may have exceed its grasp. But many Newton owners loved the product and their disappointment was not in the product but in Apple’s canceling it. Yes it was too soon; the technology, the ecosphere, and Apple’s financial condition just weren’t ready.
Likewise the Cube was great. Most Cube owners I’ve talked to were happy with the Cube. Sure, the Cube wasn’t a home run, but why is the tech press so hard on Apple’s less that spectacular products? Every product has to be an iPod, an iPhone, an iPad?
Research and development costs money. Apple requires products to pay for themselves. Is that bad? I know some people would prefer Apple to subsidize new products, but wouldn’t that mean milking buyers of Apple’s established products to benefit the early adopter? Hmmm. Can’t most to the tech press be considered a special class of early adopters and as importantly talk constantly to other early adopters? And unlike many other early adopters, the tech press probably makes less and depends on their employer buying the equipment, writing the equipment off as business expenses, or getting preview equipment from manufacturers. So my whole theory of high price being good for the true early adopter doesn’t apply to tech journalists.
Great post, bellidancer. Bob’s great but he likes to be clever; and that’s why I occasionally visit his site. Your post was informative and useful.
Namaste,
mhikl
Don’t forget the 1st gen of Apple TV. Those owners are SOL.
I’m very disappointed by this post, Bob. Not just for the bad chronology, which others have pointed out.
Regarding the price drop, the original iPhone wasn’t exactly selling like hotcakes and Apple dropped the price. You complain as if this is common for Apple (it isn’t) or unheard of in the industry (it isn’t). High priced products sometimes get their price lowered. It happens. And how many manufacturers essentially refunded half the difference to their “outraged” consumers, like Apple did?
Fool me once? You said it in your column… there will be a new iPhone in June. Just like there has been for the past four years. This is a well-known cadence. People aren’t stupid, Bob. They know this. And for some of them getting an iPhone on Verizon in February will be well worth it. Others who think LTE is the only feature that matters will wait. To each his own. But this isn’t some secret or deceptive plot from Apple.
FWIW – I really wanted you to be right with the white iPhone prediction. But posts like this will make me lose the trust you’ve held for twenty years for me (I’m looking at a copy of Accidental Empires right now).
Tim Cook was asked in the press conference why no LTE. He said that the first generation LTE chips did not allow Apple to make an LTE iPhone without design compromises Apple was not prepared to make. (Approximately, an LTE iPhone built now would have to be bigger and fatter than the present iPhone 4. Or it would have dreadful battery life. Or both). He also said that Apple wanted to give Verizon customers who wanted an iPhone as soon as possible, so they were releasing a CDMA model now.
That’s perfectly reasonable. I think he is telling the truth. That said, Apple will release an iPhone 5 in June, so I wouldn’t buy an iPhone 4 right now. It may or may not have LTE, depending on whether a suitable second generation of LTE silicon is available by then. (I doubt it, personally, but wait and see). Some people will want one now, and they will buy it now. I don’t think anyone is being deceived by this. Wait longer and you will get a better and cheaper model: that is a standard rule of the tech industry.
It’s so nice to hear from a reasonable man. I bet your right about LTE too. I’m going to save time and stop reading right here.
[…] Today, 12:57 AM I, Cringely Blog Archive Fool me once, shame on you… – Cringely on technology […]
Anybody want to buy a Kin, first generation Zune, Microsoft Credits, Remington Hot Comb, Polaroid Swinger, 4-Track Stereo, 8-Track cartridges, Roger Rabbit on Bettamax, a Princess phone, Club steering wheel lock, Sylvania TV set, a Walkman? Life sucks and then we die.
Apple sells the iPhone to AT&T for $600. AT&T then subsidizes it to is’s customers by nocking off $400 if they sign up for a two year contract. They and every other cel phone company does this and this is Apples or Steve’s fault how?
Meant to add if AT&T now want to nock off $500 this is Apples or Steve’s fault how?
But you are worse Bob. At least Apple serves up something new while you serve up the same old meme crap time after time save for the one piece a month that is interesting.
Shame on me for clicking this link-bait crap, shame on you for throwing stones whilst living in a glass house.
[…] Cringely doesn’t like Steve Jobs much. Apple has a long history of milking early adopters. Even the crappy products (remember the Newton? the Mac Cube?) would sell a few hundred thousand units to the faithful before those faithful learned the sad truth. But just as they were learning that truth, along would come Steve Jobs (okay, not in the case of the Newton, but generally) gleefully proffering the real fantastic product people had been expecting months before. Then those same early adopters, reenergized, would buy all over again, whether it was an iMac, iPod, MacBook, iPhone, whatever. Why should we think this week’s Verizon iPhone announcement is any different? […]
Wow – slow idea week? Have a fight with the wife? This is the kind of article I’d expect from Dvorak, not you!
They have a business model that works, and it makes them money.
Capitalism at it’s best, Jobs is great at making money, I cant fault him for that.
What I’ve never been able to wrap my head around is people still trading Manhattan for shiny bobbles and thinking they got a fair trade.
Most people buy with their emotions and not their heads, Steve knows this, and uses it against them, shame on the people who can’t wait to buy the next gadget just because it seems cool regardless if it’s a good deal, or let alone if they even have a real use for it.
I just wish I didn’t have a conscience so I screw people also.
Bull.
early adopters GET a premium.
1) which do you think is faster, verizon’s currently planned iphone infrastructure with 10 people in my county on it, or the new network (what ? 4g ? LTE, ? the monorail network ?) with 10,000 people on it ?
2) it’s the new iphone !~….that is cool… (yes, it would be worth extra to have it show that it is different…. like be white, or hexagonal, or moist….)
and of course my rio diamond was way cool because I could play mp3’s years before there was an ipod…..
Given this behaviour, why would it surprise (or does it?) that Steve would wed Murdoch? A more Right Wingnut would be hard to find. Makes his own reality, feeds it to sheeple, demonizes those who question him, and so on. Could it be that Steve is the Anti-Christ?
The early adopter buys the next big thing from Apple and is the first on the block to use the new product. He/She uses it for a year and sells it for 80% of the original purchase price on EBay when the next big thing from Apple 2 goes on sale. The early adopter then buys version 2 for a 20% upgrade fee. Wash, rinse, repeat.
I know I’ve stated it before, but just to be clear there will be no LTE iPhone in June. The only LTE device that will be released anytime soon from Apple will be an iPad. Only the iPad can support the battery and antenna requirements of current LTE chipsets while still being true to Apple’s design goals.
There are handsets available and announced that support 4G via WiMAX or LTE. Try them… They aren’t practical for the masses.
All of which goes shows that many of the “faithful” as you put is are buying, not for utility, but as a fashion statement. It doesn’t matter for them. They just want to be first.
Motorola, HTC, and Samsung all have about a dozen different Android phones in about 2 years. S/W upgrades might be available, some day.
Apple has 4.5 iPhones. The difference is that with Apple it is becoming well known when the next H/W version is coming = summer. The prior version could always get the s/w upgrade, with the possible exception of s/w needing special h/w.
I think that it is starting to sink into the majority of the population that an iPhone purchase at this time from either vendor will be a -1 version before the end of the year. You just end up in a time lag that also allows any problems to be resolved. Your next phone would tend to be n+1 for iPhone or n+maybe 6 or 10 for Android.
It’s also not as though sales of the GSM iPhone4 have dropped to zero. People are coming off contract or have lowered costs to buy all the time. There is an initial pulse of buying when a new model is released which sucks up the production. The next quarter is usually a gang-buster quarter as it includes the Holiday season. But the 3rd and 4th quarters are not dead by a long way. Verizon has pent up demand and AT&T still has a lot of people on 3G iPhones. Sales will continue.
I’m with francis. Apple serves two markets: those who want high engineering and those who want high fashion. Those who love fashion are used to the idea that they will pay top dollar for something that in six months will be cheaper or even out of fashion: they gladly pay for the status of being in the vanguard.
That’s why it’s called the BLEEDING EDGE of technology.
If anyone has lots of money to burn on First Generation (or even Second Generation) technology, that’s fine …. write to me and I will give you an address where you can send your money TO ME (I will put it to better use than you).
I still have a candy bar phone and a four year old laptop which I used as my primary computing platform under Ubuntu 10.04 LTS. I figure that I will get an Android smartphone in about 18 months … when the price is lower, the capability higher, the “meal plans” less expensive, and 4G service is much more available. I figure to get an Android tablet a year of so after that.
The end result? I am happier. I have a lot more money in my pocket. And the rest of the world is paying the entry fee for me.
Life is too short to always be looking to buy the “latest and greatest” toys. For 24 years I worked in The Industry. You’d think after all that experience that I would have learned my lesson …. and I have.
“The first iPhone worked only on AT&T’s slower Edge network so the early adopters all upgraded to 3G a few months later, paying again.”
Early adopters bought be June 2007. iPhone3G came out a year later in June 2008, not “a few months later”.
The average American replaces the cell phone every 14 to 16 months, so 12 months isn’t dramatically early.
In my own case, the 2-year contract typical of iPhones has actually *increased* the duration that I keep a phone.
Early adopting Applefans have the money; they get bragging rights and pay for the great thrill more often. It’s called “working out the bugs”. Those with scrooge wallets, like me, wait till second generation, at least. I knew the first iMac was the trial run—like no SCSI only USB1 – a no-brainer. Though my bro didn’t have the bottomless pockets but he forgot to call me first; Yup. Some do get duped.
Actually, when the first iMac came out, I bought the top Molar, SCSI and all—bargain pricing, too. I don’t know how long it took the iMac to catch up to that beautifully heavy beast. But I didn’t get any bragging rights.
These early adopters are the people that make all the great products available to me, just at a later timeframe. Remember, early adopters pay for a lot of the R&D cost with their upfront purchases.
I’m glad they’re stupid, frankly. Life is good for me.
These early adopters are the people that make all the great products available to me, just at a later timeframe. Remember, early adopters pay for a lot of the R&D cost with their upfront purchases.
I’m glad they’re stupid, frankly. Life is good for me.
I don’t think apple fans are the earliest adopters. Most of the products come out slightly before being mainstream (just begining to move out of the elites). They do have good timing.
[…] as well as the iPhone 5. Although we see the iPhone 5 being released around the Holidays this year, Robert X. Cringely suggests that it could be here as soon as this June, potentially angering the many Verizon […]
The Verizon iPhone is only an iPhone 4, with a Verizon chip and the next version of software (soon to be released for the ATT iPhone as well). iPhone 5 will probably be released around June, just like every new iPhone since the original. If, after 4 annual releases, buyers can’t see an update coming in June, it’s their loss – you should do your homework before any purchase, tech or not.
Well stated, Bob. There’s an old Spanish saying which I will translate appropriate to your article….”The Truth Always Hurts for Compulsive Liars and Confidence Artists”. You’ve spoken like a true experienced raconteur of sleaze in the technology business.
Although most if not all of the faithful lemmings have no coherent business reason to buy now, but will anyway so they can self financially flagellate themselves at the chapel of VISA and MasterCard supporting the religion of Cupertino sales, some developers might dream to expect a return on their investment on the iPhone 4 for testing and initial application delivery. They may find themselves burned as well.
This is the most idiotic rant I’ve ever read here.
The early adopters make really great products possible, drive and pay for continual R&D to worthy engineers and designers, and propel truly revolutionary cultural changes to the masses. Somehow you all think we can go from horse and bucky to cheap clean energy cars with no one paying for anything in between. If you don’t like Apple stuff, go back to use your Blackberry from 2007 to post and respond to this blog.
Sent from my iPad.
I like Bob and reading his take on things.
But, I’ve always sensed an undercurrent of regret, though not resentment or bitterness that instead of being a part of the business, he became a journalist covering the business. You know–the those who can…do…those who can’t…saying.
After this piece, I’m beginning to change my mind about that.
So, Bob, is it time to face those “what if” demons head on and address what might have happened if you had remained an Apple employee for a bit longer, and joined the alumni class of other notables like Kawasaki, etc. who have post-Apple ventures rooted in the business?
As nearly everyone else pointed out, there’s no nationwide LTE coverage until at least a year from now.
But CDMA 3G still offers much better coverage than AT&T.
I bought the original (Edge) iPhone. Apple didn’t release the 3G version until a year later. The iPhone has since always been updated annually. When the 3G version did come out, I was eligible for upgrade at the same low price as new users – no penalty for early adoption.
When Apple dropped the price of the original iPhone they refunded early adopters the difference – without requiring any action on my part.
Early adopters are on the ‘bleeding edge’ – we know it and understand that the price of early adoption is that something better will come along shortly after. But with Apple I don’t feel like I’ve been burned, I mean, who hears of a company refunding the difference to early adopters?! I didn’t even have to ask for it.
Fool me? No. Impressed me? Yes!
Bob,
I really think the media is getting this all wrong. For $200, I might possibly solve many of my problems with the iPhone, namely AT&T and honestly, that sounds like quite a deal to me. No more dead zones in places like San Francisco, where it seems everyone has an iPhone.
If thousands of early adopters jump to Verizon and we find our issues with the phone resolved, millions more will follow.
Which leads me to a question.
What if the new iPhone 5, which also has no evidence of LTE, (according to people exploring early versions of the next IOS) but should, becomes and exclusive for Verizon, not AT&T? Verizon was the original launch partner for the first iPhone, but obviously things did not work out.
Verizon has been on the sidelines for two years watching business stream to AT&T. Millions of phones should have been on the Verizon network.
Assuming Verizon has carefully planned on how to expand their network to avoid AT&T’s problems and manages to please the new influx of early adopting Verizon iPhone customers, and more importantly grovels at the feet of Steve Jobs, what is stopping AT&T from being locked out of the latest and greatest iPhone model come June?
I should add that the people in my social circle seem to mention Feb 10 more and more. Thats the launch date for the Verizon iPhone.
That’s really not a good sign for AT&T.
A fool and his money are soon “iParted” …
Apple has been mostly predictable with the iPhone. In June the iPhone 5 will be announced. It will probably have dual mode radios for both GSM and CDMA but not LTE. Maybe there will a white model, maybe not. The iPhone 4 will drop to $99 with a plan.
It is just basic business and Apple is a business. I’ve been a Mac person all my life and I have never bought anything upon first release. Those people who must have a product as soon as it is released and fools. The same morons who wait in line to see the next big movies. It is NOT Apple taking advantage, it is Apple being a smart company!
this is technology not dishwashers. things improve rapidly. stop whining.
[…] the WiFi-only model. Although we see the iPhone 5 being released around the Holidays this year, Robert X. Cringely suggests that it could be here as soon as this June, potentially angering the many Verizon […]
Buy $10 Replica Designer Sunglasses with 3-day FREE SHIPPING
I do not know what to say except that I enjoyed reading all you have to say…
I will continue to focus on
Thank you for sharing to us.there are many person searching about that now they will find enough resources by your post.I would like to join your blog anyway so please continue sharing with us
Links…
[…]Sites of interest we have a link to[…]……
Apotheker was Shoe Stores Online by disappointing earnings and his fumbled announcement that HP’s personal computer division is for sale. HP’s chairman, Ray Lane, said the dismissal was caused by several factors.