Tim Cook Talks Apple Product Price Chopping

This week Tim Cook spoke at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference about the affordability of Apple products. Having been asked a question about prepaid customers working with smartphones and other smart products in emerging markets, the same commenter suggesting cheaper iPhones, Cook let it be known that Apple was already there – so to speak. Cook made it clear, "we lowered the price of iPhone 4, we lowered the price of iPhone 4S, [and] in the most recent quarter we didn't have enough stock of iPhone 4 after we lowered the price. It surprised us ... so we are making the move to make things more affordable."

Cook continued by speaking about the "North Star" aim of Apple, that being "great products" from start to finish. Cook noted, "instead of saying how can we cheapen this iPod to make [it's price] even lower, we said how to we make this a great product." He continued by speaking on how Apple worked on creating a Mac computer for a cost lower than average. Cook: "People were asking 'why don't you have a Mac thats less than 500 dollars, or less than 1000 dollars, and frankly we tried.'"

But not all was in vain, as Cook continued, "we couldn't do a great product [for that price], we concluded, so what did we do? We created iPad – and it's a great product, and it starts at $329! So you can look at an issue – or what you'd call an issue – and you can solve it in different ways. ... And our north star continues to be a great product."

Sound like a good idea to you? Apple is a massively successful company that's more than once adjusted their pricing scale in a way that doesn't sell a product out, but creates an environment where a great product is sold for a price that the public can't resist. Would you agree?