[...] now you see how high that premium was (a third more than everybody else).

Actually, that's 50% more. Early adopters are (of course) not good at maths, even Salon tech columnists...

I got my 8gb iPhone on day one, and don't regret it a bit. In my mind, I've had $200 of enjoyment out of it. It's been amazing.

You're so right on this one. Apple does this stuff all the time, so why is anyone surprised? 200 is a big drop, but obviously something more is coming soon, probably a 16 gb iPhone with 3G, like you said.

In other news, though, Engadget reports that someone at Apple confirmed the Touch has the same binaries as the iPhone meaning anything developed for one will work on the other. While Gizmodo's pointing to some artwork that shows a bluetooth icon on the Touch.

It's still a tough call. With the phone you get data and native email, but then there's that whole AT&T thing (what happened to all the supposed unlocking solutions coming Sept 1?). With the Touch you save a hundred bucks, get no Apple email (something 3rd party is bound to come sooner or later), no camera, and can only use Internet and web-based apps like Zoho or Meebo around WiFi.

What's a guy to do?

Hey, if you're screwy enough to wait in line in front of the store, slavering to be one of the first possessors of any new tech, you get what you deserve, IMO. And that usually means high prices and less performance... But hey, you were among the FIRST.

It really isn't a stunner that over time the price of the new stuff declines while the quality generally improves. What never ceases to amaze is how few seem able to remember this simple notion.

I bought my iPhone at 6:42 pm, ET, on June 29, 2007 for 599 bucks (plus 29 bucks that went to the Commonwealth of Virginia), and couldn't be happier with it or my choice to buy it then for that price. Nobody held a gun to my head to buy it. And I'd have paid 1,200 bucks for it.

As I remember it, the 8 GB iPhone was $599. Now it's $399. That's 1/3 less. Farhad's math is correct.

i don't really consider myself an early adopter. i do consider myself an apple fan.

my phone died just at the time the iphone came out. i was already an att customer. i bought an iphone. i didn't HAVE to be the first one to have an iphone... and yes...

i DO feel ripped off.

you say wait six month? that doesn't really make sense.

should EVERYONE wait six months? or are you only recommending people who read your column wait six months?

or maybe people who live in the northeast?

or people under the age of 50? i mean WHO?

if we all wait six months, then where would apple be?

with a failed launch.

someone's gotta buy it when it comes out.

i knew the tech would improve... i also knew that the price would drop somewhat.

just not that soon ... and that much...

people who bought the phone early should not be penalized so much.

Only pretentious jerks call it "maths". But, what was written was

"You knew you were paying a premium to be first; now you see how high that premium was (a third more than everybody else)."

Based on the sentence, people who adopted early will have paid 50% more than everyone else. If the phrase had read "...(a third less than the early adopters)...", then it would have been correct. It is all about the initial reference.

$200 is roughly 50% more than $399, and $200 is roughly 33% less than $599. Both are correct math wise. But, the way the columnist wrote it, it should have been "half as much as everyone else" since he was referencing the current price not the initial price.

No, the first poster was correct. The math is wrong. The original price was 1/2 more than the new price, not 1/3. Instead, the new price is 1/3 less than the original. So the premium paid by the original purchasers was 50%, not 33%.

Secondly, Apple didn't rip you off early adopters. You've enjoyed a whole summer's worth of oohs and aahs from your peers, and you should have known that sooner or later the price would drop and that the novelty would wear off. Why people stand in line and pay through the ears for a new piece of technology has never made sense to me, but you all do it for a reason and should just remind yourself why that is at a moment like this. It's obvious that they overpriced the thing, because their stock dropped 5% yesterday on news of the price cut. Steve Jobs practically said himself yesterday that they couldn't figure out why nobody was buying the iPhone ("it's got the best customer ratings for Apple EVER, but we're gonna be more aggressive" = why isn't anyone buying our phone?).

"Yeah, you got hosed."

If you really want to kick this tech blog up a bit, introduce the people to the terms us gear heads really use. In this case the word is "pwned" - a word with a delightfully-colorful history.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pwn

Farhad is wrong for saying that the iPhone early adopters, who bought it for $599, paid "a third more than everybody else." $599 is 50% more than $399. And Lazy Lady is wrong when she(?) says that Farhad's math is correct. But she's right that $399 is third less than $599. Get it?

that there would be no math.

True, tech always drops in price for the same feature set. Moore's law, copycat competitors, etc. So I totally expected the version of the iPhone I got to be made obsolete in 6 months or so. 2 months seems a bit extreme.

You're right about waiting for a while to buy something, and quite a few Applephiles may take this to heart, 'cause they feel burned. Which I don't quite understand. It seems in Apple's best interest to treat its early adopters well. If everyone took your advice, and waited 6 months to buy it, the headlines on the papers the week after launch would be "Initial iPhone Sales Dismal" and "Little Demand for New iPhone". How would that impact their bottom line?

But maybe since Apple is turning more and more into a mass consumer electronics company, they felt it was a fair sacrifice. They lose some early adopters, but sell another million iPhones before Christmas. Personally, I'm annoyed, but not gnashing my teeth about it.