Jun 28 2007
The Economics of Scarcity
I feel somewhat compelled to address the iPhone; everyone else has by now. But since I don’t plan to own one, at least not in the immediate future, I’ll limit my contribution to the frenzy with an observation of the launch.
By strategically limiting early access – to the device and the story — Apple is really expanding its ability to provide wider access. Some people may not agree with the approach, but for Apple it seems to work. Ah, the brilliance of a Steve Jobs-driven “PR” campaign.
For example,
- Making the devices available on a Friday evening to create a shopping frenzy before the weekend.
- Putting the devices in the hands of a select group of influencers. Those influencers ignited the blogosphere and traditional media outlets this past week.
- Today’s “town hall meeting” at Apple. The ultimate insider’s event — who wouldn’t want to be there?
- And despite the high price, limiting sales to only two per customer.
The limit is crucial - to prevent people from making a killing re-selling *in large volume* on ebay. In fact, I’m surprised they let you buy two. One for you and one as a gift, I suppose.
Krupo, thanks for the comment and yes you are absolutely right about the reselling but, I half suspect that that’s where most of those second phones will end up anyway. There will be a lot of publicity to be generated when iPhone’s on Ebay command some outrageous price point.