So yesterday was Macworld and Macophiles from all corners of the known universe descended upon San Francisco with cult like devotion to hear High Priest Steve Jobs preach the Gospel of Mac. I listened fairly intently to the keynote and one thing struck me as worth writing about. No it’s not the Mac Book Air or the Apple TV Take 2 or the Time Capsule for that matter.

It was the proposed firmware upgrade for the iPhone and iPod Touch which adds the Mail, Maps, Stocks, Notes and Weather applications. While the upgrade is free for iPhone users, “lucky” iPod Touch users get to pay $20 for the same privilege. You would think that Apple would have learned its lesson with the backlash they experienced when they debuted the iPhone and then lowered the price just 67 days later, that it’s generally a bad idea to leave early adopters of your product feeling like they’ve been suckered.

Companies need early adopters to get their products off the ground. There has to be a group of people who are willing to go out there, buy your product at full price and take the risk that it won’t function exactly as advertised. These are your product ambassadors, the people actively promoting and showcasing your product to the rest of the consumer world. Without these people your product doesn’t move into the consumer consciousness because it can’t be seen in use and there are no experiences being shared which involve it. I would liken it to hosting a party. You always need a few people to show up early to start the party otherwise everyone who arrives will soon leave because they assume the party isn’t going to be very well attended and therefore not any good.

Given how important these people are, you would think that a company might want to take good care of them. This logic seems lost on Apple because it consistently sends the message that if you’re an early adopter of Mac products then you’re likely to get suckered. Either the price for that shiny new gadget you just bought will plummet, making you look stupid instead of cool or you’ll have to pay extra for new features on what you “thought” was the latest and greatest. Is this really any way to treat your most loyal fans? Apple should be wary because it might soon find that the so called early adopters won’t be so eager to adopt and won’t show up early either.

If you’re actually interested in the other announcements from the Macworld keynote but don’t feel like watching the whole thing try the condensed version. Its 90 minutes of keynote condensed into 60 seconds. Now how’s that for convenience?