WHAT'S NEXT: INNOVATIONS IN NEWSPAPERS

The San Jose Mercury News says:

Jobs erred by dismissing the gripes of people who bought iPhones early, many of whom are Apple loyalists who felt insulted they were being overlooked in the company’s zeal to sell to a broader audience.

They say that Mr. Jobs is very sorry.

Well, don’t be sorry; just send us a $200 voucher.

If not, he is going to be in trouble.

And not only in the stock market.

Apple’s stock price fell 5 percent yesterday after the announcement, and was down further today, closing at 135.01, down $1.75, or 1.3 percent.

You don’t play with your most loyal costumers.

Just look at the first reactions on the Web.

A massive outcry is out there.

Just listen to them.

Listen… and send us the money.

(Illustration for TIME by Hanoch Piven)

UPDATE:

Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who was flooded with e-mails from angry customers after the company lopped $200 off the price of the iPhone just two months after its debut, on Thursday apologized to early buyers and offered them a $100 credit.

In an open letter on Apple’s Web site, Jobs said that even though price drops are a reality in the personal technology world, the company was going to make sure it took care of its existing customers, even as it pursued new users with the iPhone’s aggressive price reduction.

“We want to do the right thing for our valued iPhone customers,” Jobs wrote.

“We apologize for disappointing some of you, and we are doing our best to live up to your high expectations of Apple.”

iPhone buyers will be eligible for a $100 credit good toward the purchase of any product at any Apple store or at Apple’s online store.

Jobs said more details will be released next week.

I told you.

Well, $100 is better than nothing.

What a historical marketing mistake!

A very interesting analysis from Adam Schwabe about the new Apple partnership with Starbucks:

The new partnership between Apple and Starbucks will let you buy tracks currently playing in Starbucks from the iTunes Store on your iPod.

This is just the first step, but will surely change the way people shop for media.

Location and context-based digital shopping is now here, in a small way, but it’s here nonetheless.

While they’re giving you ‘free access to the iTunes Store’ on your iPod, it doesn’t sound like they’ll give you free WiFi access as well.

That’s pretty shady for a company that’s clearly going to massively benefit from this arrangement.

Giving people the ability to surf the Web while on the store is only going to keep them there longer — potential for more sales, both of product in store and through the iTunes WiFi store.

Extend the ability to buy songs playing in Starbucks to other retailers, movie theaters for instance, where you could buy the soundtrack to the movie or even the movie itself immediately on the spot.

Go further with the idea.

Embed an RFID chip into the iPod and link it to my iTunes account.

Allow Starbucks, or any other retailer to let me use my iPod to pay for stuff like you can already do with the Mastercard touch-n-go and so on.

More news from Steve Jobs:

A new iPod Classic starting at $249 for 80GB – audio 30 hours, video 6 hours – with a new $349 model with 160GB for 40 hours of audio and 7 hours of video.

A new WiFi iPod Touch with the same size screen as the iPhone, but only 8mm thin – a phone-less iPhone – including a Safari web browser. The first touch product Apple’s going to ship outside the U.S. Battery life: 22 hours audio, 5 hours video playback.

A new free iPhone software update.

A new partnership with Starbucks.

More in a few minutes.

(Pictures from Engadget)

Apple’s iPhone outsold all smartphones in the United States in July, its first full month on sale, research group iSuppli said on Tuesday.

ISuppli reiterated its forecast that Apple would sell 4.5 million iPhones this year, rising to more than 30 million in 2011.

The two models of the iPhone sold more than Research in Motion’s Blackberry series, the entire Palm portfolio and any individual smartphone model from Motorola, Nokia or Samsung.

The iPhone will be the bestselling Christmas phone in the country.

Wait and see.

(Picture by Reuters)

Le Tour de France started in London in a big way.

Like Il Giro in Italy, Le Tour de France is a fabulous “brand extension” from newspapers!

Conrad Black goes to jail.

The Daily Telegraph fails to recognize that he saved the paper and The Spectator.

He is not another Robert Maxwell, but has been presented like him.

Wrong.

They were crooks, but at least Lord Black improved his papers.

Journalists must accept the fact.

News Corporation and Dow Jones agree about the sale.

The Bancroft family wanted another buyer but nobody, nobody, offered more than Murdoch.

So, they will sell.

The New York Times is in its new building.

But the financial results are worse than ever.

The Sulzberger family and their (poor) business managers must be accountable for the failure.

The Apple iPhone is a success.

Apple and AT&T sold more than one million sets in the first week.

They could sell more than 10 million sets before the end of the year.

The new Independent on Sunday is doing better than the critics expected.

Well, we were almost alone when all the bloggers were negative.

The new, compact, Sunday news magazine works.

The new ET in Greece confirms its success.

Again, against the conventional view.

INNOVATION was right.

And the ET team did a super job!

In Atlanta, Christian Oliver was INNOVATION’s first consultant to get one!

How was it?

This was his Apple iPhone experience:

I got my iPhone.

Yes, I stood in line but only for an hour.

I must say, even if the phone sucks, I take my hat off to the execution.

I have never seen a better product release in my life and for that matter, never heard of anything like it.

Apple did an incredible job in organizing this.

I arrived to Lenox at 5 p.m. with Vanessa and the line was huge!

I though that maybe they would run out of phones.

Pretty soon Apple people started walking down the line and gently explained how the process would work.

Kudos.

Later on they started distributing water.

More Kudos.

When the store opened at 6 there was a loud cheer from the crowd.

Then the line started moving REALLY FAST.

In less than 15 minutes almost half the queue had gone by.

I entered the Apple store at almost 6:45.

There were Apple staff applauding each group that entered.

You could take all the time you wanted playing with the phones and then go to a second line to buy them.

After buying the phone one could buy the accessories.

They had MANY accessories, including some of the coolest Bluetooth handsfree devices I’ve seen.

I left happy with my bag and even happier with the experience.

I’m a proud shareholder!

At home I opened the iPhone.

Incredible packaging, as usual.

Connected it to iTunes and in less than 10 minutes everything was working and I was making calls with the same number.

NEVER EVER before has buying a phone been such an easy experience.

THIS IS HOW EVERYTHING SHOULD BE DONE.

Any business that achieved this is meant for success.

No more comments.

So… no comments!

The iPhone is here!

Flickr has more than 12,000 pictures of the iPhone mania.

The real thing;

And the crowds:

Pictures from Norfolk, Virginia, at 3 p.m. today.

The Apple store in the MacArthur Center shopping mall is closed.

There were around 60 iPhone fans waiting outside.

If each store has to sell 200 iPhones this weekend…

Wait and see how soon those 200 iPhones are gone here just tonight.

The AT&T store in this mall doesn’t sell the iPhone and the sales force didn’t seem very enthusiastic about the iPhone. They were giving advice to an old lady and the conversation was like this:

“She wants to get one.”

“How old is she?”

“Sixty”

“Don’t buy it.

“Get one of these…”

I asked about the cost of checking emails in Europe: two cents for each kb.

His comments:

“Very expensive.

“And very slow.

“We have better plans here for you.”

So… my guess is that the Appple and AT&T marriage is going to be a rough one.

And tomorrow we will have the queues on the covers.

You will see…

Edwin Tofslie created this Apple product timeline.

Click here to see it bigger.