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How first iPhoneslost their cool

September 8, 2007 12:35 am

HOW WELL IS the most hyped product in history maintaining its status as a status symbol?

It should come as no surprise that two months after its July launch, the iPhone remains a head-turner.

I've been styling and profiling with one for the last two weeks, shamelessly flaunting it to see if the device's sex appeal remains intact.

The first 12 days of this exercise was almost as much of a no-brainer as a study released this week by the cognitive science program at Indiana University that found that men like their women pretty.

Here's what Part One of my iPhone cognitive science study found: It makes you a tiny bit cooler and a tad more popular. Where was the iPhone when I needed it in high school? Sob. It could've gotten me a hot date for prom. The girls would have been looking at me through iPhone goggles. No, wait. It was mostly tech geek guys who were doing the oohing and ahhing. So I guess it actually would have gotten me a tech geek guy date to the prom.

Things changed during the last couple of days of my little study, though, because Apple and AT&T slashed the price of the 8GB iPhone by $200 Wednesday, making those who paid $599 just the day before look and feel like pretentious dupes. Now if you flaunt an iPhone in line at Starbucks, people may think you're uncool. They may think you're the kind of person who overpays for effect. You know, the kind of person who prides himself on paying $5 for a latte just so he can walk around with a Starbucks cup in his big, fat, stupid hand.

So, um, is that a pre-Sept. 5, $599 iPhone you just hid in your pocket, or are you just glad to see me?

The reason for the steep price cut so soon after the iPhone launch is Apple CEO Steve Jobs' surprise introduction of the new iPod Touch--essentially a cheaper, even cooler, even slimmer, even sexier iPod than the iPhone.

It doesn't make phone calls--or require a costly two-year contract with AT&T.

The new iPod Touch features built-in Wi-Fi networking; Safari, Apple's YouTube application; and the 3.5-inch touch screen first introduced on iPhone. It will work with iTunes' new Wi-Fi Music Store. iPod Touch comes in 8GB and 16GB models for $299 and $399, respectively. It will launch later this month.

All of this would seem to hugely undercut the iPhone. Hugely.

Still, Mark Siegel, an AT&T spokesman, sees the glass as not half full, but overflowing.

"We're very pleased with how the iPhone has been received by customers and we think this pricing move will make it even more popular," he told The Free Lance-Star.

But aren't people who paid a lot more for an iPhone not a long time ago going to be ticked off?

Siegel said he's not in the business of reading customers' minds.

Jobs apparently is, though.

He has apologized. And he has offered compensation to the poor saps who paid $599 for the 8GB iPhone, only to have the company unexpectedly slash the price and release a seemingly better device.

In a letter on Apple's Web site, Jobs admits he has received hundreds of e-mails complaining about the price cut.

"The technology road is bumpy," he says in the open letter.

Jobs said the company will dole out $100 credits for Apple's retail and online stores to iPhone customers. Those who bought an iPhone within 14 days of the price cut can get a refund of the price difference if they have the original receipt.

Doesn't AT&T feel betrayed by Apple's release of a product so similar to the iPhone so soon after the iPhone's launch?

"One key thing is it's not a phone," Siegel said. "It's a great product. But obviously, it's not a phone."

No, it's not.

But the truth is that the iPhone's weakest point is its below-average phone function. It's the "i" that's sexy, not the phone. With apologies to the band Right Said Fred, "i's" too sexy for its phone, too sexy for its phone, too sexy for its phone.

And the iPod Touch is going to touch iPhone sales.

Hard.