Guess what? The $100 rebate was planned along side the price cut. Do you think Steve and Apple as a company just decides to rebate early adopters $100 because of a some cranky emails. If you do then you even more naive than those people that stood in line for hours to get an iPhone when the following morning I walked into the Apple Soho store and picked one up in 2 minutes.
The rebate will get people back into or back online looking for something to buy, chances are they will spend more than that amount and Apple makes another sale. This is how business make money, they are not your best friends, they are a big corporation and if you owned Apple stock you should be happy with the way it is being run these days.
Squealing Swine: The Sad Position of early iPhone Adopters