Why do the iPod Touch owners always have to pay?

$9.95

With the iPhone it is part of the service agreement. They have to charge with the iPod touch because it is considered an add on. It would be illegal for apple to give it to you for free because that means that they sold an unfinished product.

Apple-track record compared to Windows OS Vista release?

To answer your question, iPhone owners pay their dues through their monthly data plan (it subsidizes OS updates as per the contract between Apple & AT&T, et al).

At least Apple has products to get excited about!

huh I’m not following….?

I like how the Macalope explains it…

The short story for those who got to class late is Apple must charge for substantial enhancements to products that do not have revenue recognized on a subscription basis or it has to restate prior earnings. The iPod touch does not have revenue recognized on a subscription basis. The iPhone does. As does the Apple TV. Hence, they get free updates and the iPod touch does not.

It’s a somewhat complicated accounting convention and perhaps you can argue that the iPod touch revenue should also have been recognized on a subscription basis, but then it raises the question as to whether or not all iPods should have their revenue recognized that way and pretty soon it all devolves into communism and everyone’s getting everything for free and even Randy Newman doesn’t want that.

So you can’t argue that Apple shouldn’t charge for the update. It’s too late.

Robmandu-great explanation-

As for the Windows/Mac OS comparison, I’m referring to XCNuse’s complaint that the iPhone OS 2.0 is going to be released in a month (when there was no official release date set), yet Windows Vista was delayed (here’s a bit of timeline history regarding Vista development):

http://crave.cnet.co.uk/desktops/0,39029426,49258743,00.htm

Official release date for the new iPhone is Jully 11’th, their “early July” date
So surely they will release the 2.0 software that date also.

That’s upsetting.

Heck, I’m sure there are lots of happy people out there that couldn’t afford an iPhone then, the new one 8GB will be $199!

iPod touch owners are lucky that updates are available at all. There were so many software improvements made to the iPod classic that were never made available to owners of the older versions.

Just to add to Robmandu’s excellent quote – it’s a byproduct of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. It’s really complicated, but you can safely assume that Apple is doing it only because they have to. They’ve received a ton of angry backlash at forcing iPod Touch users to pay and I’m sure they’d much rather not deal with the negative publicity.

“This is why I’m a dell person.” Hahahah

Apple has a lot of work to get done. Its not the easiest thing to continue to revolutionize every industry apple touches. July 11th will be here before you know it.