Apple have now released the end user software license agreement for the ipad. The software license agreement states that buyers will be entitled to free software upgrades up to and including the first major version release above the version on which they bought. So if you bought an ipad with OS v3 you will get everything up to and including v4 as a free upgrade, under the terms of your software license agreement, but from v4.1 onwards you will have to pay to upgrade.

This software licensing approach at first sounds like quite a reasonable compromise. The iphone software licensing agreement gives buyers free access to software upgrades, major and minor for a full 2 years after purchase. Whereas under the terms of their software licensing agreements, users of the ipod touch have had to pay for all major software versions from the word go.

The big difference here though is that whilst both iphones and ipod touch have traditionally shipped with the most recent version of the iphone OS, new ipads are shipping with the 9 month old version v3, with v4 expected to appear later this year.

So new ipad owners may find themselves stung with an extra fee under the terms of their license agreement, within the first few months of owning their new toy.

Apple are very keen on making their hardware, and especially the ipad, affordable for everyone. But technology like this has to be paid for somewhere along the line – and it may be that the software licensing agreement is one of the ways Apple is going to do this.

Unsurprisingly, there has been a measure of outrage amongst vocal Apple customers who see the Software Licensing agreement as something of an underhanded cash grab. At SL.tv we see no real harm in this strategy. Apple have put huge investment into both the software and hardware for the iphone and ipad – and after all a guy has to make a living – even if that guy is Steve Jobs.

In any event, we hardly feel that the extra cash that users may have to fork out under the terms of their software licensing agreement is likely to break the bank. Ipod touch users are currently charged $9.99 for major version upgrades. If you can afford a shiny new ipad we are sure you can afford ten bucks every year or so to keep your software up to date.

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