At an Apple Store, you can now buy anything you want, as much as you want, except if they’re iPhones.
Apple feels bad about the quarter million iPhones people have bought, but have not activated. (Guess what happened to those.) It seems people have been buying in bulk, with the precise intention of reselling them, for eventual unlocking and use with different carriers, or for use outside of the continental United States.
Hoping there won’t be more of that kind of Think Different business this Christmas season, Apple is now limiting over-the-counter purchases to just two iPhones per customer - and you’ll need to use a credit card; your cash is no good to Steve Jobs.
Hoooookay…
In fact, they’re so serious about it they aren’t even allowing iPhone purchases using Apple Gift Cards, even if the gift cards themselves were bought using credit cards.
It’s one of the rare times a company Thinks Different and deliberately refuses perfectly good business.
Feh! All this Thinking Different is giving me a headache.
October 30th, 2007 at 9:54 pm
Wonder if the same will happen to the new iPods too, once people start unlocking them.
..You can see their side of the story, too, but at some point even the most submissive of buyers will have had enough..
October 30th, 2007 at 8:15 pm
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October 30th, 2007 at 2:04 pm
It actually makes good business sense for Apple as it is part of their strategy to negotiate tieups with different providers in each country the Iphone would be sold.
October 30th, 2007 at 11:41 am
“for use outside of the continental United States” seems like Jobs is afraid of asia’s craftmanship…. or maybe afraid of the punitive childlike enhancements iPhone/”iPod-on-a-cellie” has compared to favorites, Nokia, Motorola, Sony-Ericsson, and samsung
October 30th, 2007 at 9:49 am
With the hacking of some iPhone, it is just but right for a company to do something like this. I think it is a good move by Apple. Don’t get me wrong. I’d really like to get my hands on an iPhone someday and, hopefully, I can get one here in the Philippines without the fear that my expensive device turns into a brick. But a company also needs to protect its investment, its customers and its brand. It’s not all about sales and money.
If we put ourselves in the company’s shoes, would we do the same? We do not just live for the glory of today but also think about the future. Besides, the business of Apple does not end with the iPhone.
There are more products to come.
One more thing..God bless!