The average reader who frequent blogs like this look at the world from a very skewed, techie perspective. But the reason the Ipod has been such a massive hit (with the iPhone hoping to follow up on that success) is all about style and status. People here can talk about OS X being the difference maker all they want, but the real selling point will be absolutely no different with the iPhone. However, the competition is MUCH stronger in this segment and even massive sales will constitute only a small fraction of the overall market. It can influence this more mature market but it will far from dominate it anytime soon.
And the argument about the early adopters getting ONLY $100 back after the $200 price cuts is just downright whiny (not sure how much Larry believed what he said or if that was just fodder to attempt to make the article more buzz-worthy.) I'm no Apple fanboy at all (far from it) but people should be grateful they got even that. Most companies don't treat their early adopters the same way once the inevitable price cuts come to fruition - and I don't think users should expect that, it's the price for being an early adopter. Most companies don't have the evangelical following that Apple does either though. Larry's right on that point. If you have a ********, radical following you sometimes have to handle them with care.
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