> they made no guarantee that the price wasn't going to drop
Interestingly, they do guarantee that if the price drops within 14 days of you buying the product then you can pay the lower price.
http://store.apple.com/Catalog/US/Images/salespolicies.html#...
As the return period is 14 days too, this is probably to stop people returning the product just to get a new one at the lower price.
So, they set the price, and people bought it. End of story. They didn't force anyone to. If someone thought it was worth $600 when, as Cringely says, the 'real' price was the current price, then you made the mistake.