So now that the speculation is over (and dare I say how correct the  
rumors were) one good question was raised today about how entirely out  
of character it was for Apple to cut the price of a current product  
(in this case the iPhone) from $599 to $399.  Was it panic? Were they  
simply gouging the early adopters (such as me)?

I'd like to answer that.  I think Apple had every intention or rolling  
out the iPod touch around the same time as the iPhone and letting  
users decide if they wanted a converged cell phone and iPod.  But at  
some point they got a little behind with the iPhone and had to take  
some engineers off MacOS 10.5 to help.  Now that iPod touch and others  
are ready they can lower the price and align the products the way they  
wanted.  That said Apple must be kicking itself for sticking it to  
their very important early adopters.  If I were still at Apple I'd be  
sceaming to make it right - at the very least a few free ringtones  
would be nice. 9/6 UPDATE: Steve makes things right!  

If you missed the keynote, here it is.

Sent from my iPhone