By Sharla Sikes

It’s all about the iPhone these days, isn’t it?

When Apple cut iPhone prices just a few months after the trendy gadget’s release, customers were pissed off. I can’t say I’m too sympathetic towards the buyers who stood in line and paid a premium for a first-run product.

It happens every Christmas when the latest video game console brings the yearly multi-day campouts, fistfights and inflated prices. I don’t feel sorry for those people either, when prices drop three months later and the devices turn out to have problems. Today’s marketing strategies involve BIG hype and too-early releases, which invariably results in unhappy customers—who line up and do it again for the Next Big Thing.

So Apple’s gesture to give customers who paid the full price a partial rebate in the form of store credit—and actual refunds to those who’d bought an iPhone within two weeks of the reduction—was pretty big of them.

It wasn’t enough for some buyers, though. At least one woman has sued Apple and AT&T for the iPhone’s price cut.

Dongmei Li of Queens, New York is seeking $1 million in damages, based on claims Apple violated price discrimination laws. Li’s Sept. 24 lawsuit states the price reduction “injured early purchasers like herself because they cannot resell the product for the same profit as those who bought the cell phone following the price cut,” according to the Associated Press. The suit accuses Apple of “price discrimination, underselling, discrimination in rebates, deceptive actions and other wrongdoings,” according to a filing by her attorney, C Jean Wang, of Wang Law Offices.  The filing further contends that Apple should not have dropped the iPhone’s price because “market conditions did not require Apple to change its price,” and that the “iPhone was selling very well because Apple’s stocks were increasing …the day before Apple announced that it was cutting the price of iPhone.”

Li said that purchasers of the 4gb iPhone like herself weren’t given as “favorable” terms as 8gb buyers. It seems to me that might be because those who bought the 8gb paid more to start with.

The suit also names AT&T, the exclusive carrier for the iPhone, claiming the required two-year contract constitutes “unfair business practices.”

Again, it seems to me that was never exactly a secret to iPhone buyers, and they all went ahead and bought it, knowing they’d be paying AT&T for cellular service. Key point: They chose to purchase the phone despite its price and service contract.

Other lawsuits, with possibly more merit, have followed the iPhone’s release. Cisco sued over its claimed ownership of the name “iphone,” and one iPhone user sued claiming that AT&T had misled customers about billing and roaming charges while using the iPhone.

Apple and AT&T declined comment over Li’s lawsuit.

I would, too.

What requires companies to pander to whiny customers like Li? Does she think Apple is in business to make her life better? Here’s a secret: It is not. Apple is in business to make money. It has products that customers want. It has products that customers (like Li) are willing to pay for. There are smartphones that are less expensive than the iPhone that don’t require an exclusive contract with AT&T, but she chose to purchase the iPhone anyway. So how is it Apple’s responsibility to pay her millions because now she’s unhappy? Talk about buyer’s remorse.

The ridiculous lawsuits need to STOP.

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