Responding to widespread anger from early purchasers of the iPhone over $200 price cuts announced yesterday, Apple CEO Steve Jobs today published an open letter offering a $100 Apple Store credit to any customer who purchased an iPhone at its original $499 or $599 price points, and is not already receiving a rebate or other compensation from the company. Jobs simultaneously explained the company’s reasons for the price cut, apologized, and acknowledged its need to “do the right thing for our valued iPhone customers.”
“There is always change and improvement, and there is always someone who bought a product before a particular cutoff date and misses the new price or the new operating system or the new whatever,” explained Jobs. “This is life in the technology lane.”
“[E]ven though we are making the right decision to lower the price of iPhone,” Jobs continued, “and even though the technology road is bumpy, we need to do a better job taking care of our early iPhone customers as we aggressively go after new ones with a lower price. Our early customers trusted us, and we must live up to that trust with our actions in moments like these.”
According to Jobs, details of the $100 credit “are still being worked out and will be posted on Apple’s website next week.” The credit will be available through Apple retail or online locations.
