iPod Touch Owners Protest $20 Upgrade

Thu Jan 17, 2008 10:04AM EST

See Comments (39)

The Macworld crowd cheered when Steve Jobs announced that the iPod Touch was getting a set of new apps: Mail, Maps, Weather, Notes, and Stocks. Then, the lead balloon: the upgrade will cost $20. Now there's an online petition calling for Apple to drop the charge, and thousands of Touch owners have signed on.

TUAW found the online petition on Wednesday, complete with about 600 signatures; as of Thursday morning, close to 4,500 users were on board, many of them peeved that the five apps will come pre-installed—for free—on new Touches. "Why should I have to pay 20 bucks when I was an early adopter," complains one Thomas Hedrick. "Now you give away those apps for free—four months later! Come on."

It's hard to argue with the guy. Back when the Wi-Fi-enabled iPod Touch was first released, I wondered why it came with the iPhone's Safari, YouTube, calendar, contacts, and clock widgets, but skimped on such essentials as mail, maps, weather, and other widgets included in the new update. After all, both the iPhone and the Touch run on the same basic platform, and the Touch has Wi-Fi, so why not? Now Apple seems to have (finally) come to the same conclusion, but charging early adopters $20 to get what they should have gotten in the first place—and what new Touch owners will get for free? Pretty weak.

Related:
Pod touch owners rally to get new apps for free [TUAW]

Comments on iPod Touch Owners Protest $20 Upgrade

Post a Comment

Join in the discussion. Here you'll see the comments in the order they were posted.

  • 28 Posted by jfenichel on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:34PM EDT Report Abuse

    I think It's pretty dumb to charge for the upgrade from a marketing stand point. Basically your telling your willing an able customers to hold off on buying new products from your company. The message is "Wait for the upgrade." In the meantime customers might get bored and go somewhere else. They penalize you for taking action to buy their product early. Bad Business...

  • 29 Posted by sat480 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:06PM EDT Report Abuse

    Apple does not give a crap about their loyal buyers. I am buying no more apple products, this i-touch should of been an upgrade.

  • 30 Posted by sphuliunga2007 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:36PM EDT Report Abuse

    Yea, come on Steve, there is a recession, give us a $20 consumer rebate for being loyal the the Apple economy

  • 31 Posted by coreypaulsell on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:29PM EDT Report Abuse

    I think another important point that we are all missing here is that the update that added additional features to the iphone was free!!! Why did they do this? Because they are trying to stop the jail-breaking of iPhones. So when the updates work in their favor...of course they will be free.

  • 32 Posted by sd4usc on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:10PM EDT Report Abuse

    i think apple is crazy for chraching for the new applications. It also make me made becuase i was an early buyer and now they lower the price on the ipod touch without software updates . THis really made me mad . Apple should give the early buys a rebate just as they did with the iphone .

  • 33 Posted by giant1020 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:08PM EDT Report Abuse

    you people are all the greedy ones. boohoo you don't get the updates...you were the ones who decided to go out and spend hundreds of dollars on the fancy new fad, knowing full well that it would be outdated in a few months any tech guy knows that you don't buy the very first edition of a new product anyways--that's the one that has the most defects (ie, xbox 360; i'll bet you were one of the ones who got a fried power adapter weren't you?) and is essentially the test market...from this test market, the companies then learn what consumers really want and they put them in the next set that they make. and think about it--if you buy a new car this year and it doesn't come with the bluetooth that you wanted, but you know the next year's model will, then why are you going to waste your money getting something you don't want? because you're impatient and expect everything to come to you for free (jailbreaking) most ridiculous thing i've ever heard--you're the impatient one, and they have to hear the crap from it) bottom line--grow up children, this is the real world and you don't always get what you want here

  • 35 Posted by torment_within on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:17PM EDT Report Abuse

    This is why I'm not going to buy one till my video ipod dies, they have already come out with 3 new versions & I bought mine almost 2 years ago...insane.

  • 36 Posted by jacksonpritt on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:26PM EDT Report Abuse

    I am outraged that Apple is charging early buyers of the iPod Touch $20 for a system update that ought to be free. While I understand Apple's decision to charge money for the new applications the new $20 "application pack" also includes a SYSTEM UPDATE in the form of the home page editing, web clips, and lyrics features. All of these are updates to the currently existing iPod Touch software and NOT new applications, which means that they ought to be free to all users of the iPod Touch. Adding insult to injury these applications are all hidden in the 1.1.3 system update, a whopping 104.4mb file that all users must download if they want to fix bugs in the system. These applications can only be used when you pay Apple $20 to "unlock" them, but even if you decide not to buy them they stay on your iPod taking up precious space that could be used for songs, videos, or photos. Apple is normally wonderful when it comes to providing system support and updates, but having them shaft early adopters and loyal fans like this is offensive and shows that Apple has absolutely no regard for the iPod Touch community. You can leave Apple direct feedback here: http://www.apple.com/feedback/ipodtouch.html You can also sign this petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/freeappi/petition.html

  • 37 Posted by jacksonpritt on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:26PM EDT Report Abuse

    I am outraged that Apple is charging early buyers of the iPod Touch $20 for a system update that ought to be free. While I understand Apple's decision to charge money for the new applications the new $20 "application pack" also includes a SYSTEM UPDATE in the form of the home page editing, web clips, and lyrics features. All of these are updates to the currently existing iPod Touch software and NOT new applications, which means that they ought to be free to all users of the iPod Touch. Adding insult to injury these applications are all hidden in the 1.1.3 system update, a whopping 104.4mb file that all users must download if they want to fix bugs in the system. These applications can only be used when you pay Apple $20 to "unlock" them, but even if you decide not to buy them they stay on your iPod taking up precious space that could be used for songs, videos, or photos. Apple is normally wonderful when it comes to providing system support and updates, but having them shaft early adopters and loyal fans like this is offensive and shows that Apple has absolutely no regard for the iPod Touch community. You can leave Apple direct feedback here: http://www.apple.com/feedback/ipodtouch.html You can also sign this petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/freeappi/petition.html

  • 38 Posted by jacksonpritt on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:26PM EDT Report Abuse

    Personally speaking, I am outraged that Apple is charging early buyers of the iPod Touch $20 for a system update that ought to be free. While I understand Apple's decision to charge money for the new applications the new $20 "application pack" also includes a SYSTEM UPDATE in the form of the home page editing, web clips, and lyrics features. All of these are updates to the currently existing iPod Touch software and NOT new applications, which means that they ought to be free to all users of the iPod Touch. Adding insult to injury these applications are all hidden in the 1.1.3 system update, a whopping 104.4mb file that all users must download if they want to fix bugs in the system. These applications can only be used when you pay Apple $20 to "unlock" them, but even if you decide not to buy them they stay on your iPod taking up precious space that could be used for songs, videos, or photos. Apple is normally wonderful when it comes to providing system support and updates, but having them shaft early adopters and loyal fans like this is offensive and shows that Apple has absolutely no regard for the iPod Touch community. You can leave Apple direct feedback here: http://www.apple.com/feedback/ipodtouch.html You can also sign this petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/freeappi/petition.html

  • 39 Posted by kevinchen22 on Wed Jul 22, 2009 5:44PM EDT Report Abuse

    The apps already exist on the device. You just pay $20 to download a small file that unlocks them.

More Posts: First Prev 1 2 3 Next Last

Post a Comment

Sign In to Post a Comment

My Tech

Please enable your browser's cookies to activate the My Tech column.

Also on Yahoo! Tech

Computers Home Office Wi-Fi & Networking Phones & PDAs Cameras & Camcorders TV & Home Theater Portable Audio
 

Site Map | Tour | Subscribe to Yahoo! Tech

Question and Answer content at Yahoo! Tech is written by Yahoo! users at Yahoo! Answers. Yahoo! does not evaluate or guarantee the accuracy of any Yahoo! Answers content. For more information, read the Full Disclaimer.

Opinions expressed by the Advisors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Yahoo! Inc. Yahoo! receives no compensation from any manufacturer or distributor nor does it compensate any Advisor for the coverage of any product or service in any Advisor's content.