Jobs reads customer emails?!

Apple's Steve Jobs is going to compensate early iPhone buyers for the recent price drop. That seems to be a smart business move, but it didn't surprise me. This is what surprised me:

Machinist: Tech Blog, Tech News, Technology Articles - Salon:

.... I have received hundreds of emails from iPhone customers who are upset about Apple dropping the price of iPhone by $200 two months after it went on sale. After reading every one of these emails, I have some observations and conclusions....

There was no reason for him to lie about reading the emails, it's not something we expect CEOs to do. This fits with some other stories I've read about him. He actually reads some customer emails (there's no way he could read all of them -- he wouldn't get any work done!).

Weird. There really is nobody like Steve Jobs, for better and for worse he takes his products personally. Given Apple's success over the past five years perhaps reading customer emails is going to catch on ...

Update 9/7/07: Cringely has a wickedly delightful essay on the man he calls "The Puppet Master". A bit of sado-masochism is probably helpful for Apple customers.