iphone 3g

Sooner or later, Apple may decide that the goodwill of their freakishly loyal customers is worth something, but so far there are few signs of that.

I have a first gen iphone, and i wouldn’t give it up for the world, but the extent to which Apple hasn’t even done the easy stuff to keep me loyal blows my mind.

• In the blizzard of promotional emails i got touting the new 3g, not one acknowledged my status as a customer. They sure know who i am, as a registered owner and AT&T customer.
• Not one email clarified, and nowhere on the Apple website did it make clear whether existing iphone customers were eligible to upgrade (we are). I learned that from David Pogue’s column

Of course there were glitches. Of course there were shortages. Were they preventable? Who cares. The cheaper, easier, low-hanging fruit was the important stuff. And they completely blew it.

p.s. Though AT&T has not been as atrocious as i had feared (though i wouldn’t go all the way to calling them a “pleasant surprise,” i am still convinced that the choice of AT&T in the first place was an act of unalloyed greed by Apple.