iPhone price cut unfair to shareholders?

At least one pundit investor thinks that the company's decision to drop the iPhone's price $200 was a slap across the face of not only purchasers of the device, but also shareholders. Writing for Seeking Alpha, Prashanth Cherukuri notes that while price cuts on consumer gadgets are not unusual, such a dramatic drop so soon is. "I think this negative publicity for iPhone is definitely a dampener for Apple. I, for sure will be doubly wary of buying an Apple product from now on, because they just do not seem to have any regard for their most fanatic customers, who swear by every product of Apple. [...] After all the murkiness is cleared, we'll know more about this price cut and the factors that influenced it, but for now, I am off to the Apple store to get my refund."

We previously reported that Apple's decision to credit early iPhone buyers $100 toward the purchase of other Apple products in an attempt to alleviate anger triggered by the massive 33-40 percent price drop enacted just 10 weeks after the device's introduction represents an about-face in the company's stance on such rebates. In fact, in 2003, Apple argued a Microsoft settlement that "fewer than 25 percent of customers redeem these types of vouchers." That criticism concerned Microsoft's $1.1 billion antitrust settlement, which consisted of vouchers worth up to $29.

Filed under: Apple