Apple’s iPad Not to Get iPhone Tethering, Says So Apple’s Steve Jobs

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Yesterday we found out that the Wi-Fi iPad will be available in U.S. stores starting with April 3 while iPad pre-orders will kick off on March 12. It’s no wonder that excited iPad customers are getting their cash ready to get one of the three Wi-Fi iPad models available so far.

One of those customers based in Sweden fired off an email straight to Steve Jobs asking him whether the Wi-Fi iPad will be able to use the iPhone’s 3G connection. Surprisingly Steve Jobs answered from his iPhone and his answer was short and to the point: “no.”

It’s only logical for Apple not to want to support iPhone tethering on the Wi-Fi iPad. If you want 3G you should pay an extra premium 3G fee of $130 for the 3G iPad which is coming only at some point later in April.

Unofficially some clever folks might find a way to enable iPhone to iPad tethering in the near future although such a tethering feature isn’t really supposed to work.

The main point here is that the main man from Apple is using an iPhone decided to personally respond to this inquiry which means this is a serious matter. We can only assume he must have gotten before this question and maybe he’s just a little tired of having to answer it.

While we do understand Apple’s personal attachment to hard cold cash they should also understand our same needs. Paying an extra $130 for the 3G antenna it’s just a little too much. Here are, once again, the official iPad prices which you will find in Apple stores later this year:

Wi-Fi iPad:

• 16GB – $499
• 32GB – $599
• 64GB – $699

3G iPad:

• 16GB – $629
• 32GB – $729
• 64GB – $829

An earlier report this year suggested that Apple could decide to cut down prices should the iPad not sell very well. But something tells me that the whole talk about iPad availability this week might have convinced a lot more people to pre-order the device, just to make sure they are among the first ones to get it.

Oh and just as a side note, given all the iPhone OS 3.1.3 issues you guys have been telling us about, it looks like Steve Jobs is still using on iPhone OS 3.1.2. Wonder why?