An owner of Apple’s iPhone filed a federal lawsuit against the digital media giant, claiming that the price reduction injured early adopters, like herself, because they cannot resell the product for the same profit as those who bought the cell phone following the price cut. Dongmei Li of Queens, N.Y., claimed the company violated price discrimination laws when it slashed the price of the 8-gigabyte iPhone by a third, from $599 to $399, within two months of the gadget's June debut.
Apple lowered the iPhone's price on Sept. 5 and also said it would stop selling the $499 4-gigabyte model. Hundreds of early customers who paid full price didn't expect a reduction so soon and complained. Apple issued an apology the next day. Under its return policy, Apple refunded the $200 difference for those who bought the phone within 14 days of the reduction. And in a move to make peace with those who purchased the higher-priced phone before that period, the company offered a $100 credit at Apple stores.
Li purchased a 4GB iPhone for $499 and alleged that owners of the 4GB model were given less favorable terms than those who bought the 8GB model at the premium price, according to the lawsuit. Apple spokeswoman Susan Lundgren declined to comment, citing the company's policy to not discuss pending litigation.
News source: Yahoo! News
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Apple lowered the iPhone's price on Sept. 5 and also said it would stop selling the $499 4-gigabyte model. Hundreds of early customers who paid full price didn't expect a reduction so soon and complained. Apple issued an apology the next day. Under its return policy, Apple refunded the $200 difference for those who bought the phone within 14 days of the reduction. And in a move to make peace with those who purchased the higher-priced phone before that period, the company offered a $100 credit at Apple stores.
Li purchased a 4GB iPhone for $499 and alleged that owners of the 4GB model were given less favorable terms than those who bought the 8GB model at the premium price, according to the lawsuit. Apple spokeswoman Susan Lundgren declined to comment, citing the company's policy to not discuss pending litigation.
News source: Yahoo! News View: Neowin Forum Discussion
sue? If I buy food and the price is reduced the next day I can sue?
You early adopters of ANY technology get hosed. By paying the higher price, you make the ABILITY to reduce the
price by providing the profit for the company to recoup the price of development. It's called bleeding edge.
If you can't wait a month or more after something comes out, for the price to drop, that is YOUR problem.
Unless she's a official reseller I don't see the point of the lawsuit...
I hope that somehow later in the future someone will ruin Apple and actually go bankrupt for real this time. That will most likely not happen but it will put a smile on my face nonetheless.
And if Apple is so notorious for dropping the price shortly after a product release (an idea that's new to me! ) , then this lady is being even more idiotic as she should very well have known the price would drop soon after the iPhone's release.
It happens to all computers - heck, I had the same issue with a toshiba I bought; it didn't stop me from purchasing a PC laptop from another vendor (now a happy HP customer running Solaris).
I hope that somehow later in the future someone will ruin Apple and actually go bankrupt for real this time. That will most likely not happen but it will put a smile on my face nonetheless.
Dude Apple is not notorious for this... ALL big consumer based companies are notorious for this. It's the way most business is done in a consumer/retail market. Don't single apple out as if they are the only ones who do this and they are the ones who invented this way of conducting business... And for your MacBook issue it seems very strange that you would have had to return 5 different MacBook pros... sounds like a user error unless you got 5 defective MacBook Pro's in a row... in which case you probably should have tried a different store or even ordering from online to ensure a different shipment. You personally having problems with your Mac isn't enough said about the quality of their products. There are millions of reasons why you personally could have had issues, including the possibility that the issue could be you. I haven't had any problems with my MacBook at all and I do a lot of advanced things with the the kernel and the shell. I fool around with the OS and tweak it to High Heaven and still no issues... I know A lot of people with Macs with NO issues what soever.
Still , not a reason to sue!
As for being an eBay seller, she can go screw herself. She has no room to sue anybody simply because she's not making money.
Doth lady protests too much.
About the topic... I wouldn't sue, but what I would get out of this is, I'd remember exactly how Apple does things. If you don't like it, do not give them any more of your money. Tell a friend about your experience. That's about all I'd do, if anything.
About the topic... I wouldn't sue, but what I would get out of this is, I'd remember exactly how Apple does things. If you don't like it, do not give them any more of your money. Tell a friend about your experience. That's about all I'd do, if anything.
What I don't understand, where is the law suit against Sony for the price drop of the Sony Playstation 3? how about Microsoft for the price cuts of XBox 360? what about all those students who bought full priced Office 2007 before they offered a huge discount?
Its stupid, and its the US system of suing anything thats no bolted down - perish the bloody idea of personal responsibility!
About the topic... I wouldn't sue, but what I would get out of this is, I'd remember exactly how Apple does things. If you don't like it, do not give them any more of your money. Tell a friend about your experience. That's about all I'd do, if anything.
What I don't understand, where is the law suit against Sony for the price drop of the Sony Playstation 3? how about Microsoft for the price cuts of XBox 360? what about all those students who bought full priced Office 2007 before they offered a huge discount?
Its stupid, and its the US system of suing anything thats no bolted down - perish the bloody idea of personal responsibility!
Well, the past few years have been very good to Apple. I'm sure they've had law suits prior to this one. Now they're in the spot light, they're gonna be subjected to many more...but yeah.. personal responsibility, it's gone right out the window. If you can't see the history of the tech industry, then you get what you have coming.
About the topic... I wouldn't sue, but what I would get out of this is, I'd remember exactly how Apple does things. If you don't like it, do not give them any more of your money. Tell a friend about your experience. That's about all I'd do, if anything.
What I don't understand, where is the law suit against Sony for the price drop of the Sony Playstation 3? how about Microsoft for the price cuts of XBox 360? what about all those students who bought full priced Office 2007 before they offered a huge discount?
Its stupid, and its the US system of suing anything thats no bolted down - perish the bloody idea of personal responsibility!
I couldn't agree more!
That has to be the most awesome statement ever! Lol I like your thinking!!!!!!!!!
Some ppl. Its what you get for being an early adopter of technology. **** happens. Get over it.
cause back in march 2006 i built a pc (befor core 2 duo's where out) and after the core 2 duo's came out a few months later-ish i was ****ed cause there was a HUGE drop all at once in the price of the CPU's that i got which was bs cause i know you gotta expect CPU's to drop in price "gradually" over the months/years but nothing major all at once... which is what happened with the AMD Athlon 64 3500+ CPU i got in march 2006
i was pretty upset... but o well, technology moves so fast you gotta expect price drops but not as much as it droped like it did all at once.... but ill take comfort in knowing i got a pretty good bang for the buck pc at the time i built it
p.s. no i would not sue, but i think companys should be prevented from doing major price drops within a short period of time.... cause that CPU i had held around the 200 dollar price point for quite a while and as soon as core 2 duo's came out it was about half that price just like that!
What do you expect? AMD CPU's were getting slaughtered by the Intel's. Seems kinda stupid to keep your prices up there and send your company bankrupt.
Where's the logic exactly?
But what I think is unusual in this case is that a mid-to-low price range tech-item was heavily discounted - not on sale - only 2 months after launch.
I don't think doing a test market is a bad idea. I think part of Apple's strategy was to see how many would sell at what price point. But to knock $200 off a $500 tech item 2 months after launch is virtually unheard of.
It might happen w/ a CPU but there, there is a single producer and basically one "source" material and IP. Its different with the iPhone as it uses multiple vendors to source all the items to built one. So, no single 'part' could account for the price drop as would CPU.
Lol, Couldnt agree with you more...I guess they deserve it. If you want to be the cool guy with the cool new phone that is kinda crap, then you get what you pay for. No sense compaining about it...
Good point...And what legal precedent would that set. No company WOULD EVER lower prices. The PS3 fans are right in holding out for a price drop, sure they were early adopters, but they paid for the privelidge to show off to friends etc...
Apple should never have even given the $100 vouchers...
I hope the judge awards her a box of kleenex to dry her tears as she is thrown out of court for wasting everyone's time.
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