If I were one of the initial purchasers of Apple's iPhone, I'd consider the company's offer of a $100 store credit to assuage anger over the huge iPhone price cut to be the cheap buyoff that it is. From CNET News.com:

The company on Thursday posted an open letter from CEO Steve Jobs on its Web site defending the decision to cut the price of the 8GB iPhone from $599 to $399, but acknowledging that Apple shouldn't have treated its early adopters in such a fashion. Jobs had announced the price cut just a day earlier...

Granted, I'm not an Apple diehard and therefore can't possibly think like one, but the company's message as I interpret it is "we're only ripping you off for half the previous amount." Not exactly the stuff viral marketing campaigns are made of.

I mean, you'd think they'd at least throw in an "I was gouged by Apple" t-shirt or mug. Make it a badge of honor or something.

Seriously, I see readers online defending the iPhone's 33 percent price cut, but what they're really defending is the huge mark-up. Look, just 10 weeks ago people lined up -- and not just regular people, but among Apple's most devoted product users -- and essentially paid $200 extra to help cover the costs of the iPhone promotional blitz.

News flash to kneejerk Apple defenders: Apple can do wrong, like any other company run by human beings. Jobs conceded as much when he wrote on the company's site that "we need to do a better job taking care of our early iPhone customers as we aggressively go after new ones with a lower price. Our early customers trusted us, and we must live up to that trust with our actions in moments like these."

That's a pretty unambiguous admission that Apple breached the trust of early iPhone buyers, and I give Jobs credit for acknowledging this.

Well, only half credit.