A Crisis at Apple and How it Reacted

One of the most recent crises Apple has faced over the past few years was the iPhone price drop incident that happened in the Summer of 2007. Apple had just released the first iPhone’s to consumers that waited hours and hours outside of Apple retail stores waiting for the doors to open so they could get their hands on the new technology. For two months, the iPhone was sold in stores for around $600 along with an AT&T 2-year all Internet access plan. But then, in an effort to boost sales before the holidays and after much criticism for the high cost of the phone, Apple dropped the price to $400. Original purchasers of the iPhone were furious. They believed it was very unfair to drop the price by $200 dollars just two months after they had paid the original full amount. The e-mails started to pour in with complaints and Apple was accused of abandoning the loyal early adopters of their products. Bad PR to say the least.

Steve Jobs recognized this and after reading hundreds of e-mails he placed an apologetic letter to iPhone owners all over the Apple website, and even had a few press releases about it. The apology on the website explained that Apple was not blind to anger of their loyal customers and offered a $100 credit toward a future Apple purchase for anyone that bought the iPhone at its full $600 price tag as long as they didn’t use a rebate or other consideration when they purchased the phone.

Now Apple should have known better than to upset its loyal customers, but this news story appeared quickly and disappeared just as quickly. The hype probably lasted a month or two, so you can imagine the work their PR firm was doing for them at the time. But overall, I’d say they handled this crisis pretty well.

~ by williammfoster on December 2, 2008.