Expensive Apple

One of the biggest problems I've always had with the Apple co. is that their products, while pitched as being fabulous and working so well together, often cost as much as twice as their competition. Since usually that competition also works with everything else that isn't Apple, I've yet to ever go down that rabbit hole. But once in a while Apple catches my eye and I'll tell folks about this product or that... or like today, when Apple does something stupid, I tell my MAC fans how silly they are for botching it so hardcore. After all the hubbub over the expensive iPhone, which only works with AT&T's service btw, Apple just dropped the price on it by $200. Why stupid? Well everyone in the last 2 months that spent $600 just got screwed. But their hero is there for them. If you read the linked article, you'll see that the famous Jobs gave everyone a $100 store credit at the Apple store. Hooray! Now customers aren't screwed! Well yeah actually they are. If you read the article, like most tech articles involving Apple, you'll hear the overwhelming praise by the Apple fans on how this kind of price dropping is normal in tech fields... just look at Plasma TVs. You'll also hear how noble it was for Jobs to swoop in and save the grieving fans by awarding them with half of their stolen overpaid money. But see it's a store credit, not a refund. So Apple just gave you a $100 worth of accessories for your overpriced phone. If anyone thinks Steve Jobs lost a penny giving out those rebates, you live in a deeper delusion than the guy that said this:

“I’ll forget about the unexpected credit long before I forget Jobs’s letter, which I found thoughtful in both senses of the word,” Mr. Hawthorne said. “Gestures like this remind me that Apple’s success is not an accident.”