Apple CEO Steve Jobs posted an open letter to iPhone users on the company's Web site today, apologizing for dropping the price of the iPhone by $200 only two months after it first became available.

"Our early customers trusted us, and we must live up to that trust with our actions in moments like these," Jobs wrote. "Therefore, we have decided to offer every iPhone customer who purchased an iPhone from either Apple or AT&T, and who is not receiving a rebate or any other consideration, a $100 store credit towards the purchase of any product at an Apple Retail Store or the Apple Online Store."

ZDNet's Larry Dignan says the primary lesson here is simple. "Let's face it; Apple is more than a company," he writes. "It's a religion. And you can't let your flock down even as you expand."

And Wired's Adario Strange calls this a lesson in damage control. "Some will see the unplanned rebate as a sloppy reactive move by a major corporation, but Jobs' personalization of the early iPhone adopter pricing issue is exactly why Apple has won so many die-hard fans over the years," he writes. "What was yesterday a slap in the face to early iPhone adopters has turned into a textbook example of how to take care of loyal customers."

More here from the Washington Post ... more here from BusinessWeek ... more here from MarketWatch ... and more here from the New York Times.