Apple chief executive Steve Jobs has offered a $100 (£49.38) store credit to early iPhone buyers in an attempt to appease those browned off by a steep price cut from $600 to $400 for the recently launched device, which combines a phone, music player and web browser.

‘Even though we are making the right decision to lower the price, we need to do a better job in taking care of early iPhone customers as we aggressively go after new ones,’ Jobs wrote in an open letter on Apple’s website, while making the point that ‘if you always wait for the next price cut or to buy the new improved model, you’ll never buy any technology product because there is always something better and cheaper on the horizon’.

Shares in NASDAQ-quoted Apple suffered on investor concerns regarding iPhone profit margins in the wake of the price cut and rebates. Some analysts felt that Apple would benefit from the store credit (which would be seen as a goodwill gesture), while others expressed concern regarding potential brand damage.

Following the price cut, internet sites were swiftly swamped with messages from angry iPhone buyers who felt they’d been punished for their early support. Jobs conceded he had received ‘hundreds of emails’ from customers ‘upset about Apple dropping the price of the iPhone two months after it went on sale’.