The Price Moved. The Story Didn't.

The original iPhone launched at $499 in 2007. People were used to paying far less upfront for a phone, and the price got plenty of attention.

Steve Jobs didn't stand onstage and argue for the price with a list of features. He introduced it as three things people already understood and wanted: a phone, a widescreen iPod and an internet device, together in something they could carry in their pocket.

Steve Ballmer laughed at it. Most expensive phone in the world, he said. No keyboard. Not good for business email.

By the old yardstick, he wasn't wrong. That was the point. He was measuring a new category against the one it was about to replace.

Apple cut the price ten weeks later. The price moved. The story of what the product was didn't.

When I talk about product vision, this is what I mean. Before you debate features or pricing, you have to be able to answer three questions plainly: What did we build? Who is it for? What does it replace in their life or their work?

If you can't answer those, every pricing conversation turns into a comparison with someone else's product. And if your only basis for pricing is what a competitor charges, you're letting their product define the value of yours.

Customers still get the final say. They'll tell you if you got the price wrong, and you should listen. But they can only judge the product you've explained to them.

A lot of teams reach for pricing tactics when the harder work is being able to say, with conviction, what they've made and who should care.

First posted on LinkedIn, October 7, 2026.