The $399 iPhone: MR Fanboys Gone Wild!!1!

A selection of spicy quotes from the inner circle of (now betrayed) faithful.

Get It Try It

Apple - Steve-0 - announced price and product changes for the iPhone on Wednesday 5 September. The low end iPhone retailing for $499 is no more - no one wanted it - and the high end iPhone is now permanently marked down from $599 to $399. As of time of writing there is no refund programme for those who paid $200 extra. Following are spontaneous comments from the MacRumors illiterates on the good news. In most cases the presence of seven '*'s means the word 'fucking' has been deleted by MR nanny 'Doctor Q'. Sometimes it can mean 'apeshit'. If there are eight '*'s in a row it most likely means 'bullshit' and if there are only four it probably means just plain 'shit'. For the latest in fanboy hysteria be sure to visit the MacRumors forums.

Cool. Can I get my $200 back for beta testing for them?

I'm so ******* pissed off right now...

I feel like I just got punched in the face. Fanboy tax indeed.

This. Kicks. Ass.

Well...I feel a bit upset...oh well, thats the "price" of buying the product right away

Ditto here. I plan to go by the Apple Store later today and raise some serious hell about this.

I know there's a "bleeding edge" penalty, but jesus. There's a lot of pissed-off iPhone owners right now. I'm sure.

WOW....I can't believe this....it is great for everyone who doesn't own one but the people who did buy one will be upset!!!

Screw you Apple, I paid $499 for my 4 gig iPhone less than a month ago. I'm pissed...

Welcome to mobile phone pricing...there is always an early adoption premium.

******* Apple... I'm so pissed off...

The iPod prices don't look so good anymore...

I'm 3 days past the 14-day return period. I want my $200 also. I must say as a first time Apple product buyer, I'm severely disappointed.

DAMMIT...I knew I should have waited a couple months past launch! I too am pissed off...can't wait for the Zune Phone (JK!)

You got that right. I've had my iPhone since 6/29, so we're talking about roughly $100 PER MONTH that I paid to be an early adopter of a $600 item.

I'm so angry right now. Talk about customer loyalty - Apple can screw themselves.

well i only paid $150 for mine but the price drop means sales will go through the roof!!!!

Im starting a club... you all are invited to join... its called the I'M ******* PISSED ABOUT MY IPHONE DEAL club... dont worry... memberships are free for life... as you already paid $200 to Apple to beta test something for them. Our first order of business... im protesting until everyone gets a $200 gift card...

wow, this is utter ********. not only is it 200 cheaper, that means ******* APPLE was making at LEAST 200 per phone. there is going to be the biggest turmoil. 200 to the average american... thats a big deal.

hahaha, suckers! Serves you right for buying Gen1 Apple products. You knew there would be cheaper/better ones soon enough. That's the price you pay for early adopting. If you bought within the last week and you visit these forums, then you're an even bigger idiot because you knew this was coming. We all know not to buy before a big launch event, so stop complaining if you just couldn't keep it in your pants(your $$ that is) until then.

im sure people who bought the 4gb version in the last 14 days will be able to get an 8gb for free plus a refund.

what the hell!?!?!? a $200 price drop 2 months after it came out? i better sell my stock once this gets around.

I think all the early adopters should get some kind of a rebate.

I knew I should have waited..

SCREW YOU APPLE~~!~!~~~!!~

This was a rather dumb move on Apple's part. Who is going to buy another expensive first-generation Apple product? Just wait a few months and they'll knock 33% off the price.

crap 200 bucks down the drain. BS

I officially hate you Steve! But I still love my 4GB iPhone.

I'm going to be calling Apple in a bit and seeing what they will do for me. That is total BS, I know they can do what they want to the pricing but come on, who ever heard of a $200 price drop on something that has been out for two months?? I'm very pissed off right now...

i second this an glide's comment. Really pissed too. They should offer store credits for $200

And now Apple pissed off its 1M user base..... but most of us, being the die hard Apple fan will live with it! And buy more Apple stuff. Well I'm off to replace my iPhone...going onto the 4th one...this was worth the 200 extra I paid for sure

I'm ticked. I spent $200 more for the same product in June, now it is $399! My friend just bought an iPhone 8 GB for the full price, they should give those customers some sort of reimbursement or iTunes credit.

Total bummer....For the price I paid for 2 of these, I could now get 3...and it's been roughty 65 days....I have about 300 dollars left on my credit card paying them off, I would have been +$100 if I woulda waited. I'm fine with price drops, it happens...but how often does something happen this soon. I was expecting maybe a $100 dollar drop, not $200.....so lame. "the customer satisfaction numbers on the iPhone are off the charts" Yeah...but now that you ripped all of us off, I'm sure our moods have changed a bit.

I've not even had it for two months. I understand price drops, but *that* is ridiculous.

DON'T BUY NEW PRODUCTS if you hate it so much. Buncha whiners...

Don't ANY of you remember the "iPod Photo?" Anyone? Who is surprised by this news? It's pretty much the same story again. You all made fun of those who said "Fanboy Tax." Heck, we were just being realistic. Don't complain now!

Do the right thing here, apple

Hey Apple, I'd sure take that new 8Gb Nano to make up for it!

I agree, this is a little hard to take. A price drop this soon!?! Has to be unheard of. I like the new price, I just think they should have been offered at that out of the gate. Would have shut a lot of the critics up as well.

Why is everyone so upset....did you not think they would drop the price???? Did you think they would keep the price the same forever....get over it....you knew you were paying a premium for being the early switchers...

They made everyone happy except for those who already bought an iPhone.

I for 1 dont care i would have paid more for the iPhone then 599.00

People, I feel your pain. But this is the world of high-tech. It's ever been thus, even if this is somewhat of an extreme case.

i feel like a $200 whore

A $200 price drop after only 2 months from launch is unfair to Apple's original iPhone customers. Either Apple is panicking that iPhone sales haven't been up to expectations, OR Apple was overcharging for the phone 2 months ago at launch. Apple needs to do something for its original customers to avoid very very bad blood.

No they should not go wild giving everyone who adopted early credit or refunds. Everyone who bought one already got to use an iPhone for two months. Everyone saw this price drop coming at one point or another...

ah well, hard to complain too much. I'll just keep telling myself that...

they offered a $200 Apple Store credit when they dropped the price of Aperture from $500 to $300. I bet they do the same now. Although, it will cost them about 200 million dollars.

Not really...Apple price stay basicly the same...the product get upgrades, but only after like a year...and then the price is the same. A price drop after 2 month is a brand new thing for Apple.

Ok sorry I really do feel bad for everyone that paid that much. But this is almost too funny. Luckily I'm not one of them. Apple has never screwed over their early adopters like this before, very strange. I'd be pretty POd right now too. Seriously though, they should have at least offered a $50 iTunes gift card to all current iphone owners or something to calm down the uproar. This is going to get them some bad press. Still no 3rd party software support on any of this? Still a joke then I think.

Ha ha! All you megageeks that couldn't wait are getting the shaft!

Stood inline and paid $599..... Want a dam refund of 200 smackers Stevo And when do I get my headset back from engineering, the headset that shorts out when it gets sweaty?????

We all expected it, but not after only 60 days. They did this with Aperture (from $500 to $300) as well, but they offered store credit for the difference. They better do that here as well.

Looks like its back to hackin my phone :-) this is stupid though...i was really hoping for exchange email support and opening to business accounts.

At least I didn't buy the 8GB iPhone, although I'm still angry about a price drop this soon.

Jesus, guys. Prices change, do people go ******* when a car company drops the price of their car by several thousand when they've already had it for 3 months? If you were expecting the price to stay the same then you obviously don't understand business, especially in the mobile phone industry. If you bought your phone in the past 2 weeks, chances are you'll get the difference back if you ask.

For a product less than 2 months old, this amounts to a swift kick in the nuts. For me, 200$ is a significant amount of money. I am speechless. Really poor on Apple's part. It will no doubt piss off the very loyal fan base who helped them sell 1 million phones - I hope they consider that.

suxs to those to bought it early...

really....I'm going to email Apple then! Personal I think thats a good idea, if Apple done it before, why not again? I'm off to Apple Offical Forums!

haha you idiots.. thats what happens when you buy a product first. guess what? newer **** comes out, prices come down. you don't deserve 200. If you wanted it cheaper, you should have waited. haha.

I understand the price drop, but the fact that it is less than 2 full months after the product is out is what pisses me off. $200 after 2 months is ridiculous. Hey, I'll take a coupon to the apple store, I am in the market for a new mac pro and would be more than glad to apply the savings. I am waiting to see what happens with you all calling and complaining before I do it also.

the next time apple makes a great new product and we are all wetting our pants about it, let's remember this moment. let's make sure we all don't run out and buy the piece great goodness for this is very well likely to happen again. this is bs and my confidence in apple has dropped. i never post on this forum, i lurk, but this has gotten me out of my hole just so i can rant. this stink will be smelled for miles on every news channel and every newpaper. what a load. i own 8 macs and a ton of other apple products and i have never felt this angry about that company.

Maybe they will send them a bunch of coupons....

Hahahaha. I knew it! And yet I still couldn't make myself wait to buy one. You win this round Jobs, you magnificent bastard.

No one who works there had anything to do with the decisions your upset about.

I'm not as outraged as some people around the internet seem to be. It sucks to have paid $200 more, but then I have really enjoyed my iPhone for the last two months and (for me anyway), $200 is not that much money. I do hope that Apple does something nice like sending $50 or $100 iTunes gift cards to all early iPhone purchasers. They did something like this when the dropped the price on Aperture soon after launch, did they not?

That is one hell of a price drop!!!

Could be worse. You could be an eBay seller with a stash of $200 losses staring you in the face.

I hope your serious because I am. We really need to let Apple know how pissed off we are. I've never seen a product lowered by $200 in just a few months.

A little mad as I haven't even had the iPhone for a month and the price has gone down by $200. $200...$200 can't get over that. wouldn't have been as mad if it were only $100, but 2...$200. next time I better wait at least till a second revision so as not to over pay for something.

Damn I'm pissed about this! Okay a 50 dollar price drop wouldn't bother me but a $200 one is a lot to let slide.

If Apple does not offer a $200 credit (even if its to iTunes store) to all who bought this thing initially, I would hope we would all agree never to buy another Apple product within its initial 6 months.

I look at it this way compared to the new Touch and the $200 price drop. For $200 dollars I get crappy AT$T service with dropped calls everywhere and 1 bar of service and an Edge network which takes 5 minutes to download an email. Everytime I see their commercials I think class-action lawsuit for lying to us. I have to take my MBP in this week because of heat issues and I'm gonna bitch about the $200 dollar price drop and see what they say...

absolute slap in the face for their loyal early adopters. I understand price drops but only 2 months after the release?? Sure was nice of us to pay an extra 200 to be their beta testers. I am willing to sign up with whoever wants to start up the Class Action suit.

What you are gonne do next time? Buy a Zune? No, Apple doesnt give a damn!

I hate it when companies lower the prices on their products! If I had to pay a certain price, everyone else should too. If they lower the price, I should at least be reimbursed for the extra amount I spent. I know I thought the product was worth a certain price (after all, I bought it at that price), but now that other people can get it for cheaper it's no longer worth the original price for me. The company owes me money for my mistake. Oh, wait. I'm not 10. Ignore the previous paragraph.

You're all LITTLE CHILDREN!

I'm three days passed my return as well and frankly with as much as I've spent on apple the in the last month I want my $200 back.

you are a bunch of whiners!

When Aperture dropped $200, Apple issued $200 credits to early adopters......

Wow, not a happy place to be right now. I feel for all you early adopters who were so valuable in making the launch successful.

If Apple had offered it at 400 bucks a couple month ago, but you couldn't find one anywhere and someone offered to sell you a brand new sealed one for an additional $200, would you have bought it? I would have.

iPhone is a great product with a lot of interest. But many who were amazed by the iPhone, said yes it's amazing, but it's also $600. Now it's still just as amazing and desirable as ever and it's $400. That reduction in price will melt a lot a resistance to iPhone sales to the general public. And Apple still gets their signing bonus and cut of the monthly bill. They will be just fine and the sales numbers should go up as a result of the price drop.

A $200 price drop only a mere 68 days after it's introduction is a bit steep for an early adopter tax. The early adopters are Apple's best customers and they're going to have to do something for them on this one.

As an owner of an iPhone 600, I'm a little surprised/annoyed that there's such a big price drop so soon. It's only really been two months. When they were first released, it was reported that Apple's profit margin was over 50%, which means that they're still making $100/unit at the new, lower price! The 4GB unit looks like a complete rip off now, too. The only thing I can think of is that there was a short-term pricing conflict between the iPhone coming out and the iPod refresh today. They probably didn't want people buying iPhones instead of iPods as that would send a bad message to the market about the future of iPods, which is Apple's meal ticket. The real question is what this does to the opening day sales of the next brand new Apple product. Will the early adopters be as prepared to rock up and buy on day #1? After all, those of us who did for the iPhone just paid $200 for the privilege of proving Apple's product for them.

I got burned with my Apple TV too. 160GB came out 2 months later for $100 more. Gee $299 for 40 GB, $399 for 160GB. But this is an even bigger slap in the face. Why they don't drop the price on my new 2.8GHz 24" iMac by say $500-600. Wait let me bend over first. Ok, now I'm ready. Tell you what Apple, you just lost 1 year of references from an ex-employee.

"The fanboys have no patience" - Yoda

I will NEVER EVER EVER EEEEVVVVEEEERRRRRR buy a 1st gen Apple product again. And I am infinitely less likely to say good things about my iPhone now because I feel SO ripped off.

No sympathy here! NO ONE TOLD you to be the FIRST IN LINE!! NO ONE forced you to by ANY phone, or computer, etc...just to say you got one!! Thats the price you pay for volunteering to stand in line and get your iPhone! Everyone KNOWS that prices come down later, ESPECIALLY with cell phones! GIve me a break and stop whining! You had the money to buy the iPhone, now live with it! Man what a bunch of cry babies!

I am not going to get too upset just yet. I was one of the ones that received a gift card on the Aperture deal. I'll give Apple a chance to make things right before I let myself get angry.

I hate to admit it, but I almost feel the same way. This year alone, I pre-ordered an AppleTV, only to have the price drop and drive upgrade available almost a month later. Then the AEBS, which I bought the day it came out, only to see it upgraded to GigE two months later. And now with the iPhone... I totally understand that prices drop, and technology improves. But when I've been waiting for just under a year for Apple to do a measly processor bump (or price drop) on the lower end Mac Pro models, this feels like a punch in the nuts.

I bought my 8Gb iPhone from my local AT&T store 20 days ago on my Visa. Am I just screwed $200?

I love my iPhone and still love it the same as I did when I walked home with it, after waiting in line for 8 hours.

Way to go! ******* piece of **** Apple!

Sorry to make my 1st post to this forum so negative. But I really don't feel like a valued Apple customer!!! This is my reward for blind loyalty? I pretty much bought my 8gb iPhone on the release date because it was an Apple product and assumed it would integrate well with my Apple-powered lifestyle. I've even been patient waiting for updates. I guess I just invested $200 into Apple stock with no dividends!

I'm furious with Apple. They should do something for those of us who paid $200 more two months and a few days ago. It has not even been 3 months. Free Apple care extension, gift card to the iTunes store... I don't know. I've spent a small fortune on Apple products this year. We should ban together and do something. I for one am writing a heated letter

I'm very dissapointed in apple, don't get me wrong I love the iphone, but they have to realize the kind of people that buy the products and then reccomend them all to there friends are the reason why they are doing so well, this is going to kill them over the long run if they don't do anyting about it. 200 dollars after two months on the shelves is a joke.

Yeh, what's next? "Oh about that exclusivity with AT&T thing... yeh we're dropping that too." I'm annoyed that I'm $200 out of pocket, and that I only really wanted the iPod touch anyway... The phone aspect is still rather surplus to requirements. $200 for visual voicemail? Wow...

Just FYI, the apple store online is showing remaining 4gb iPhones for $299! Not sure that that really makes any early adopters feel better though.

The majority of iPhone buyers--nearly 1 million by Apple's count--were promoting the crap out of the iPhone to anyone who would listen. Those 1 million customers were Apple's best sales people. I doubt Apple will totally alienate them by not offering at least some type of credit toward a future Apple purchase. Any takers?

1) If you bought your ipod in the last 60 days and used some sort of credit card..MasterCard / Visa / Amex ... some cards offer price protection. All you have to do is show them the new price in an advertisment with the 200 dollar price drop, file a claim and you can get your 200 bucks back. 2) Some credit cards offer extended protection / warranty / loss clauses. Basically smash your iphone on the wall, ask for the amount you paid, then buy a new phone at the cheaper price and get the difference.

Oh my God!!! Enough people! EVERY single manufacturer out there does this. I bought my Xbox 360 a year and a half ago and now they added HDMI and lowered the price... Should I be getting a rebate?! I bought my Macbook Pro in September 2006 shortly before they introduced the Core 2 Duo chips and 802.11n networking built-in... should I get a free upgrade?! People bought computers in July 2007 and then iLife '08 came out in August... should they get free upgrades?! No. Suck it up! All companies take advantage of the hype, price things accordingly, and then gradually improve the product from there. IF THE PRODUCT MEETS YOUR NEEDS WHEN YOU BOUGHT IT THEN YOU PAID THE RIGHT PRICE AND GOT WHAT YOU PAID FOR! If you're an idiot who bought it just to have one then CONGRATULATIONS! you are a sheep. I hope you enjoy the rest of your bahhhhhhhhhhhhh day!

Wow all you whiners who bought the iphone on its release are either A) first time apple buyers or B) can't come to grips with buying a Rev. A Apple product. Deal with it. You know how many of us have had this happen when we bought the first Intel Rev. A laptops? or countless other first gen Apple products?? THIS IS THE PRICE YOU PAY FOR BUYING REV A PRODUCTS. Wow. How long has Apple been around? Get with the program folks. I swear this happens with every new product. It's been 30 years people, come on. You knew this was going to happen. Quit filling the thread with your Rev A buyers remorse anger.

How can you be mad? You handed them the cash, they didn't steal it from you.

And you are all shocked by this? How about some cheese with that whine?

If that's the case they can keep my $200 this time and next time I need to spend $2,000 on a notebook, I'll just give it to someone other than Apple. If we want to talk about early adopter taxes and general business practices; they better make good on this to avoid a backlash.

I can sympathize with you guys that are upset, If I were in your shoes I would be mad too. But since I waited, I'm very happy and will be ordering my brand new as soon as the store goes back up. Oh happy day

suck it up whiners. You knew from day 1 it was an overpriced phone, you were willing to shell out the $$ even up til the last week before you knew this "music centered" event was coming. You have nobody to blame but yourselves. You got the $200 "awe" factor for having it before the rest of us sensible people grabbed ours. ...off to get my $399 iPhone today

you have 14 days....RUN! BRING RECEIPT!

Nope. It would be a terrible precedent to set because once you agree that you should refund price drops on one product, albeit an extraordinary one, you could be forced into doing it on every product no manner how small the change.

As an Apple stock holder, the price drop is not good news. The only reason a company drops the price on anything is to increase sales. This could explain why APPL is down almost $5.00.

And Apple has done this before when without changing the hardware?

i happily bought 2 iphones on release date. normally, i don't mind the apple version 1.0 tax, but this is on the extreme edge of what is reasonable. i'd be happy with a small concession, like free applecare for the iphone. apple's expectations for iphone sales must have been way, way off for them to have lowered the price this much.

let's all remember before we get too salty that apple's stock was in the high 80's when the iphone was announced. that means that while I paid a $200 early adoption fee, my 100 shares of apple have gone from around 9 thousand bucks to close $14000. i'll make that trade.

If you've recently bought an iPhone, we'd love to hear your favorite story about using it. Call and leave a voicemail with your story at 1-800-764-9941, or write us. We're all ears.
 - Apple Inc

See Also
Apple: Share Your iPhone Story