Apple iPad OS updates will come with a price, literally

Apple customers tend to be more loyal than their PC-using counterparts, and Cupertino is using this to their advantage with the iPad. Just like the iPhone and its iPhone OS, the iPad will get periodic updates to its iPad OS throughout its lifetime. Some of those updates will be minor bug fixes, while others will be more significant, feature-laden updates. Turns out, Apple now plans to charge users for those major updates down the line!

This isn’t a new tactic for Apple. iPhone users have been enjoying free iPhone OS updates across the board, but iPod Touch users have been forced to pay to update their hardware (which uses the same iPhone OS as the iPhone). The updates come hard and fast, with each subsequent version pushing new features and plugging security holes. That gives Apple yet another revenue stream that they can take all the way to the bank. Now, it seems the iPad will help push OS update-revenue even higher.

The iPad firmware licensing agreement describes Apple’s plan to make customers pay for future iPad OS updates. To be fair, Apple is providing the first major update gratis, but will charge for any major updates. So, if you get your new Apple tablet with iPad OS 3.x already installed, you’ll be given a free update to iPad OS 4.x. But, if you want iPad OS 5.x, you’ll have to pay to play.

This is what the documentation says about the situation:

Apple will provide you any iPad OS software updates that it may release from time to time, up to and including the next major iPad OS software release following the version of iPad OS software that originally shipped from Apple on your iPad, for free. For example, if your iPad originally shipped with iPad 3.x software, Apple would provide you with any iPad OS software updates it might release up to and including the iPad 4.x software release. Such updates and releases may not necessarily include all of the new software features that Apple releases for newer iPad models.

iPhone OS upgrades for the iPod Touch run $10 a pop, so it’s likely Apple will continue with that pricing model for the iPad. Apple blames the need to charge for software updates on the fact that giving away freebies does bad things to its accounting books. With millions of iPod Touch units already in the wild, and iPad shipments expected to hit double-digit millions in 2010, we think Apple’s reasoning for charging for updates has more to do with potential revenue than any quirks with its accounting department.

What say you? Are the for-pay iPad OS updates going to stop you from buying an iPad this week? Have you already pre-ordered and now regretting pulling that trigger so early? Sound off in the comments below!

Find Apple’s iPad licensing agreement here.

About The Author

Will Park

Will hails from The City of Angels - Los Angeles, California. He spends his time playing with his numerous gadgets and looking forward to seeing what future holds for mobile technology. An avid promoter of a fully "digital" life, he promotes the widespread adoption of truly mobile, paper-less living. He dreams of the day when he can go completely digital. No more snail mail, paper receipts, bound books, notepads/spiral notebooks, credit cards, hard currency. He's a digital warrior - fighting for the converged life. He is an idealist and a realist - he has a perfect view of what the world should be but knows that the world is not perfect. Can we ever hope to see Will's dream become reality? We'll see...

Will Robertson

Do you play for OS X major update? Yes – why should iPad be any different?
Will Robertson

*pay
Gene Gurvich

Major OS X updates are fewer and far between compared to the mobile platform.

Not to mention how much more powerful OS X is.

You’re likening having to buy a new calculator every few months with having to buy a new car every few years.
aRon

It think it's low-budget to charge early-adopters, namely those who struggled through the initial quirks of iPad ownership. So as an early-adopter, and one whose wifi rarely works right, will pay for OS releases that unload the features that should be available out of the box, such as wifi printing, and more versatile USB support, and so forth.
This is like buying a car that looks good but doesn't really run good until you pay the manufacturer more to really unleash the extra horsepower that was always there in the first place.
TVBrian

iOS updates (major) only seem to be once every approx. 1.5 years, where as OS X updates are around every 2 years. iOS (speculation) could be $10 and the more powerful OS X is $30…….. All seems relevant if you ask me. I certainly wouldn't expect FREE iOS updates for the rest of my life simply because I bought a $499 product 20 years ago, that's just not smart business.
matt

When you buy a car, you take it for a test ride. Did you try the ipad before you bought it?
@JakeWan

Hopefully, a wave of Linux-based competition will eventually enter the market, not to mention Google Chrome OS, and Apple will rethink some of this. However, I do think it's fair to charge something for major OS upgrades. If that's what motivates Apple to produce the best product it can, then so be it.
Leland Siemens

Well.. all I can say is.. after I’ve read this article i’m convinced that I am going to jailbreak my ipad and just stay a version behind.. and i REFUSE to pay for an update for a device I payed over 800 dollars for. That’s rediculous does windows charge me for security updates and such? I think not.. And like TVBrian said, I wouldn’t expect updates for 20 years… (I also don’t expect any technology in our modern world to last close to 20 years). But 2 years is not too much to ask.. I replace my laptop every 2 – 2.5 years and in doing so, end up purchasing a new operating system.. ie.. im not the home premium type of guy.
But if I have to start paying for updates… a year after buying this thing.. wow.. just.. wow

Updates should be free for a minimum of 2.5 years… i’d like to see 3-5 but, that might be on the unrealistic side…

… and they wonder why people are in such a rush to jailbreak / crack / hack / whatever you want to call it…
Me

Reality check: This post turned out to be BS.
Pete

I can see why they would charge. A lot of the new features with iPhone 4 are available for the iPhone 3GS for free, with a software update… so why upgrade? What happens they the hardware you’ve got suits you perfectly? You don’t ever need to buy another thing, especially if software is being given to you for free.