iPod Porn

My colleague Kevin Maney neatly summed up the entire iPhone price drop flap with the headline "Apple Hoses Its Own Best Customers", and Jack Flack posted an interesting selection of theories on the maneuver, even as Jobs was striving to apologize with a letter and a $100 rebate. For the Jobs text, see John Paczkowski's column, then read on down to the third comment for another theory, based on Apple ducking the cost of a raft of returned iPhones.

Why can't we media types let go of this? Perhaps because Apple has ascended so far (just a point in market share against PC's is still a lot of money) on great design, user friendliness and smart marketing. (I'm a fan boy, who--full disclosure--happily used loaners from them and ended up buying three Macs plus plenty of other kit for my household. See the iPod porn shots of the "tubby" nano here). For the company to do something seemingly so churlish or just plain boneheaded is intriguing.

And will people really feel Apple's offer of a hundred bucks to be spent at the company store is enough? We'll see. Though even the ever-angry Bob Lefsetz was taken with the personal letter the chief wrote, at least enough to use it like a stick on the music label heads:

Not that Steve Jobs is all warm and fuzzy. But he's in search of excellence, and with this one little missive acknowledges he cares about his customers, he realizes that without taking care of Apple's early adopters, there WILL BE NO early adopters!

We often wonder if Mr. Jobs is human. But in one fell swoop, with one personal e-mail, yup, it reads like it was written by him, we believe he's on our team. There's no one at the major labels who's on our team.

Of course, bad PR or no, maybe it ain't boneheaded if it turns a profit. That belief, anyhow, is what separates the titans of industry from we suckers.

Apple has now put the the Jobs keynote presentation of the new gaggle of gear and features online here.