January 15th, 2008
Onto Apple's Macworld stumble - $20 iPod touch upgrade
Now, I think that Apple’s Time Capsule and the new MacBook Air products are likely to be very popular with Mac fans, but something that might not go down so well - the $20 upgrade fee to add Mail, Stocks, Notes, Weather, and Maps to the iPod touch.
Come on Steve, give your biggest fans a break. $20 is awfully steep to add a little functionality to the iPod touch - functionality that already exists for the iPhone. I know that there’s huge demand for apps on the iPod touch, and where there’s a demand there’s a profit to be made, but I feel that this is going too far. Customers have to put their hand in their pocket for every new feature, but as with the 802.11n “activation” it seems that increasingly this is becoming so with Apple. Once again the early adopters get an arrow in the back.
My guess is that I’m not alone in feeling that this is a bit of a rip and I have a feeling that we’ll be hearing about it a fair bit over the next few days.
As to whether the upgrade is worth $20 - I’ll let you know later. In the spirit of investigation I’ll upgrade my iPod touch when I update my iTunes software and find the update.
Thoughts?
Adrian is a technology journalist and author who has devoted over a decade to helping users get the most from technology. He also runs a popular blog called The PC Doctor. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations
Want to get in touch? Got a tip? Feel free to drop me a note! I ALWAYS respect anonymity. I'm also on Twitter (@the_pc_doc)
Right to Reply: Should any industry representatives wish to comment on any posts on Hardware 2.0, I will be happy to publish their reply verbatim on this blog.
Subscribe to Hardware 2.0 via Email alerts or RSS.
