One of the bigger stories in the mobile space this week is the case of a New York woman who’s suing Apple for $1 million because of the way the company handled recent price cuts and changes to its iPhone and iPod product lines.
Dongmei Li, the woman who filed the suite, is p-oed because she bought a 4GB model of iPhone in July, and now her phone is obsolete; 68 days after iPhone’s launch in the U.S., Apple cut the price of the 8 GB iPhone from $599 to $399 and phased out the 4GB model.
Li claims that Apple’s actions represent “price discrimination, underselling, discrimination in rebates, deceptive action and other wrongdoings,” Times Online said in a Tuesday report. Li also thinks that Apple was wrong to lower the price because market conditions didn’t make the change necessary.
I have two comments about this. First, I think the whole lawsuit is silly. Maybe the price-cuts and product line changes happened more quickly than expected, but come on! Technology changes at a breakneck speed, and anyone buying a gadget expecting it will still be cutting edge a few months or a year down the road is out of touch with market realities.
Sometimes the changes happen faster than anticipated, but they will occur and at that point the owner has to decide if the product purchased still has use or if it’s time for another upgrade. End of story.
Second, the amount Li is suing Apple for seems rather puny. I’m not a legal expert, so perhaps there are restrictions that I’m not aware of, but it seems to me that $1 million is just a drop in the bucket for Apple. I mean, the company finished last fiscal year (ended Sept. 30, 2006) with $10 billion in cash, and pulled in $818 million net profits during the third quarter of 2007 alone. I hardly see how a $1 million lawsuit will garner much real attention from anyone but bloggers like myself who jump to write about any “juicy” bit of wireless news.
What do you think—is Li justified in her lawsuit or just insignificant?
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This lawsuti is a joke, the person suing will never win.
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niceSecond, the amount Li is suing Apple for seems rather puny. I’m not a legal expert, so perhaps there are restrictions that I’m not aware of, but it seems to me that $1 million is just a drop in the bucket for Apple. I mean, the company finished last fiscal year (ended Sept. 30, 2006) with $10 billion in cash, and pulled in $818 million net profits during the third quarter of 2007 alone. I hardly see how a $1 million lawsuit will garner much real attention from anyone but bloggers like myself who jump to write about any “juicy†bit of wireless news.
he MS fanboys need to step back and realise that brand power is actually more important than the product itself. It is no use having a superior product if your brand is inferior to the competition. This is elementary economics. And it is certainly no use flaming anyone who is critical of MS brand, your only making the problem worse for Microsoft.