As some of you may be aware, I just bought a 20GB iPod. I feel mildly irked by the fact that Apple has decided to make my purchase "obsolete" without announcing it, even before I actually purchased it. And, I do believe that this is a choice, as I have read elsewhere that certain current and former iPod engineers have been interviewed and have said that there is no technical reason why 2.0 could not be offered to older iPod users.
Now, that said, let me also say that I wouldn't see it as unreasonable for Apple to ask for some small fee (say $10) for a full number upgrade for the iPod OS. So, I don't necessarily see this as something that I'm entitled to. Apple could even make it $30, and I'd see that as reasonable. I might not spring for it immediately, but I'd still see it as reasonable.
Someone made an analogy to the Palm handhelds, saying that you wouldn't expect a 1998 Palm to still run the latest Palm OS. Well, what I'd say to that is that I would expect a 2001 Palm to run the latest Palm OS. Just as I expect my computer to run the latest OS for a few years after I buy it.
Well, I wrote the following letter to Apple, and sent it to them through their iPod feedback page:
Dear sir,
I am writing to register my astonishment at the fact that Apple has publicly stated that it will not support the iPod 2.0 update for older iPods. I have read that there is no real technical reason for this, but, rather, it was a marketing decision. While I admit that this information is hearsay, nonetheless, this strikes me as a very poor decision. Even if all of the technical advances that are included in iPod 2.0 are not available to older iPods for simple hardware reasons, I expect that it wouldn't be too difficult to provide a v2.0 that could distinguish between which platform it was being installed on, and install the appropriate version of itself.
Now, all of that said, I do understand that there are economics involved. I, for one, though I'd prefer not to, would be willing to pay a reasonable price of about $10 for the upgrade.
However, I emplore you not to make the foolish decision to simply cut off users of earlier iPods. I see this more as a blow to the customers' confidence in Apple than any issue of actual usability of the older iPods.
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
I certainly encourage others to do the same. I don't want to see Apple go down a bad road.
Edit: Oh, I forgot something. The one reasuring thing in all of this is that, if it's true that there is no technical reason our current iPods can't support v2.0, then I think we can assume that someone will figure out how to hack it into place. I'm not sure I'd jump on that one too quickly either, as it would likely void my warranty, but still, it would be nice to know that there was somewhere to go later...
