We all know how the price drop of the iPhone last week from $599 to $399 was received by existing iPhone users but we did not know how that would translate to new iPhone customers. Now we know.

According to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, sales of the iPhone have spiked from approximately 9,000 sales a day to 27,000 sales a day. That is a whopping 300% increase in sales after the price drop.

This begs the question: How many people were banking on Apple dropping the price before Christmas and pulled the trigger after the announcement?

The answer to this question can and will influence how new products will be released in the future. If I was Apple, I know I can trust the devotees (or zealots) to purchase basically any product I put out. And knowing that, wouldn’t I just do what ended up happening to the iPhone again?

Any new product released by Apple would benefit their bottom line by setting a premium price at launch, sell the initial shipments to the faithful, and then drop the price again for everyone else.

It’s almost the same principle of negotiation where you overshoot your end goal so that when the other negotiating party counter offers at your initial price both feel they got a good deal.

This new iPhone price is not being questioned whether it is worth the money, just that it is a great deal on a great product. Had Apple released the iPhone at the price of $399, the discussion would have also been about worth, not deal. Now, let’s see how that affects the product pricing for future products.