Letter the second

Apple

PO Box A2629

Sydney South NSW 1235

Wednesday, July 1 2009

To Whom It May Concern:

I am writing to express my dissatisfaction with Apple’s decision to charge $10.95 for the new iPod Touch 3.0 Software Update. The charge is unnecessary and sets a disturbing trend – would Microsoft get away with charging for a Windows Service Pack? I do not think so.

I believe Apple may have also charged for the 2.0 update – I do not know as I purchased a 2nd generation iPod Touch which had up-to-date software included on it. Too bad for those customers who now have to pay $419 for a 16GB iPod Touch, then take it out of the box and pay another $10.95 to have it work properly.

Luckily those customers with an iPhone receive the update for free. Why is Apple suddenly creating differentiated pricing policies for its customers?

Finally, I would like to inform you I am speaking to Consumer Affairs Victoria regarding this matter as I believe the above is in breach of the Trade Practices Act. The Act states that ‘goods must be fit for the purpose for which they are sold.’ As the Software Update is essentially a security fix it should be provided free of charge in order to render the goods fit for their purpose. If Apple wants to charge $10.95 for the bells and whistles included in the update, it should also provide the necessary, bug-free software, as a free package – as every other IT-based manufacturer does for firmware or software upgrades that fix errors in the original programming.

Looking forward to your speedy response,

Sincerely,

Scott Howard.

PS - I am not the trite and pedantic person this letter would, on first glance, indicate me to be. At least not most of the time. XX