Dear Steve Jobs,

First off, kudos on allowing developers to make third-party applications for the iPhone. This is a big step toward the advancement of the iPhone, as well as toward Apple’s dominance of the market. The GPS and 3G capabilities of the iPhone are impressive as well. Nevertheless, I have a major issue with your decision to allow upgrades to the new firmware for free for the iPhone, but iPod Touch users are forced to pay $9.99 for the new firmware.

I also had issues with you charging $19.99 for installing the applications on the iTouch that normally comes with the iPhone, but considering that I had other personal issues at the time of Macworld and the release of the other firmware, I never contested it publicly.

I feel that it is unfair for you to charge one price for some users, and a different price for others. I feel that no legitimate merchant should consider using this as a policy, because it essentially divides people into two different groups: The group that one prefers, and the other group that you essentially pay lip-service to. In this case, the iPhone users are given privilege, and the iTouch users are left in the dust.

In January, I paid close to $500 to purchase a 16 GB iPod Touch, with the expectations that it would be everything that the iPhone was, save for the phone part of it. Twice, I have felt discriminated against because of your policy of charging for the same benefits iPhone users get for free. As a graduate student, my money is extraordinarily tight, and while I had the ability at the time to purchase something extravagant like the iTouch, having to pay for upgrades such as this would not only be annoying to any student, but also create an impact on funds in a situation where every dollar counts. As college students are a major part of your market, I feel that this could hurt you more then help.

You have been one to listen to people when Apple’s policies have caused problems, such as the reduction of the iPhone’s price. Now I ask that you open yourself up again to the public, and remove the unfair price for a firmware upgrade. As much as I occasionally disagree with your business practices, I do respect the accomplishments of yourself and Apple Computers. But we deserve to be treated as equally as any iPhone user.

Thank you for your time,

- James T. Dabbagian

END OF LETTER

Attention: I hereby grant any and all people to place this letter in its entirety on their blog/site, provided they link back to this blog entry. You may also sign your name under my own, and change the letter to fit your particular situation, provided that you state you have done so. You should copy this and post it on your blog, even if you’re an iPhone user. It’s not fair.

ALTERNATIVE IDEA: Write your own open letter to Apple regarding this unfairness, then let me know you’ve written one. I’ll be happy to link to it in a future post.

If this gets enough push, I’ll form a petition somewheres.