Apple

Dec 20 2007   9:43PM GMT

Who’s sorry now? Steve Jobs

Posted by: Margaret Rouse
Technology, apology, Apple

Steve Jobs apologized  for alienating early adopters. When the price of the iPhone was slashed $200 in September, Apple support forums were flooded with hate mail from customers who had paid full price. “We need to do a better job taking care of our early iPhone customers as we aggressively go after new ones with a lower price. We apologize for disappointing some of you.”

Oct 9 2007   6:37PM GMT

Overheard: Apple, the iPhone, Von Hippel and The Clash

Posted by: Margaret Rouse
Technology, innovation, Economics, Apple

“I think what’s very interesting is the fact that thanks to blogs and the popularity of the iPhone, we’re starting to see platform hacking become a spectator sport for the masses.To be sure, hacking as a spectator sport has existed for years now, but this seems to be the first time that I can recall that the audience has gone beyond video game users or deeply geeky folks. I imagine that iPhone hacking is now common conversation in churches, coffee shops, and around the water cooler.” Alex Hutton, New iPhone Exploits Image by Falon

As economist Eric Von Hippel teaches in Democratizing Innovation, real product improvement comes from users.

To celebrate the mighty end user, let’s all join in and sing that Rock-the-Casbah song by The Clash that nobody knows the real words to anyway. Ready?

Von Hippel has a theory
About product improvement
He says it comes from users
Because they’re the ones most interested
Von Hippel wrote a book about it
Democratizing In-no-va-tion
Apple didn’t pay attention
And now “unlocking” is a buzzword

Chorus

A. T. and T. don’t like it
HACK the iPhone
HACK that IPhone
A. T. and T. don’t like it
HACK the iPhone
HACK that IPhone

---

Alex Hutton added to the song — it’s too much fun to leave it buried in the comments.

By order of Steve Jobs
You better lock that iPhone down
“We have to play the cat and mouse game”
To sell it to the crowds

AT&T wants exclusivity
and to give us revenue
So we’ll play ball with Ma Bell
And the hackers we will screw

But as 2 weeks after update
the hackers did their thing
3rd party apps are running
and ringtones they did ring!

Chorus

A. T. and T. don’t like it
HACK the iPhone
HACK that IPhone
A. T. and T. don’t like it
HACK the iPhone
HACK that IPhone