What the iPhone mark-down has in common with BlackBerry Pearl's

One often applicable law of pricing for consumer devices:

When an anticipated device hits the market, charge lots.

Why? Anticipation brings out the Fanboys (and Fangrrls).

Then, after a few months, after the most eager customers have already dug into their wallets and pocketbooks, comes the time where the device needs to gain substantial inroads among mainstream users who sat out the first wave.

If you take a look at what happened today with Apple's 8GB iPhone being down-priced from $599 to $399, you'll see a trend line that also happened with the BlackBerry Pearl.

High price at the start to attract the most excited consumers, then discounting to cross the chasm to the mainstream.

And hey, this principle isn't only applicable to handsets, or even to technology.

You see it in everything from Harry Potter books, to clothes, to movie theater prices.

Hype the debut and ring the ka-ching.

Then after a couple of months, draw down the $$ and market to the masses.