This took some guts!

Apple is listening. I wrote here and here the iPhone was overpriced. And today Apple slashed its 8 gb version originally priced at $ 599 to $ 399. And introduced "the iPhone without the phone" - an iPod at $ 299 which does most of what the iPhone does via WI-FI.  It took guts to do it within 2 months of introducing the product.

The refunds and apologies to loyal, early adopter customers who bought in the last few weeks will be an unnecessary distraction - so even more kudos for biting the bullet.

But should AT&T also not follow through as I wrote here?

And why stop at AT&T? As readers of my blog know I harp on this - the industry is full of badly priced products from print cartridges to enterprise software  to international roaming to outsourced storage. Their list prices have no resemblance to what customers end up paying. The industry is more byzantine a maze than the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul. But vendors cling to their dog-eared price sheets. Years after the market tells them they are out of touch.

Another set of kudos, Apple for moving so swiftly.