iPhone Product Launch Pt. 3 - Take Care of Your Peeps

So Apple has now sold a million iPhones. The buzz around the phone has been strong and the experience with the phones has been generally great. (A few AT&T network woes and other glitches notwithstanding).

After announcing the Fall iPod lineup and positioning the product line for the holiday buying season, Steve Jobs dropped the iPhone’s price $200. Now Apple’s really ready for the holidays. This aggressive move is meant to get all those lusting after their friend’s iPhones off the fence and into the stores.

We like the move a lot. If you are going to keep the momentum going, dropping the price like this generates more positive press and pushes a larger market segment into the potential user base.

What about those million early-adopters? Two benjamins down the drain! So, Steve Jobs wrote an open letter to iPhone customers and offered a $100 Apple Store credit. Even more buzz and good will. It seems everyone knows about the credit. As an iPhone owner, I was asked over a dozen times this weekend about the credit and what other Apple-goodness I was going to buy with my new found “cash”. The message this sends to early adopters (many are long-time Apple fans) is: Apple takes care of you. The message it sends to the public is much the same.

Owning an iPhone has become an event, a badge of honor, and an ongoing topic of discussion. All I wanted was a phone; but the extra love shown by Apple and hordes of new found fans has been really fun. Voice mail messages have even included “Wow, my first message on an iPhone!”

Of course, many of these inquiries and comments are in jest; but no one escapes the hype. The iPhone is just one of the rare birds that has lived up to it’s billing.

Nice product launch, Mr. Jobs.