I’ll reserve my thoughts for after the image, but today I received this e-mail from AT&T (click on it to go to the iTunes store listing):

You might know that the Apple developer license outright forbids only recently has allowed iPhone developers to create turn-by-turn GPS applications, provided they bring their own maps.  It seemed like an odd quirk in an otherwise decent contract, like maybe Apple was worried they’d get sued for bad GPS directions or something.  Apple’s rejection policy is usually pretty decent – but there are a few times when something stinks.

For example, you couldn’t get Skype on the iPhone for a while.  Apple has also blocked the Google Voice application, claiming it duplicates functionality available on the iPhone.  My thought (well, and Leo Laportes and Mike Arrington’s and… ) – AT&T is worried about their racket on text messages – which they currently bleed you dry for each month and Google Voice gives away for free.

And now – we finally see that AT&T wants a piece of that GPS money – this turn-by-turn GPS application costs $9.99 a month to use.  This was the reason behind Apple’s mysterious “no turn-by-turn apps” policy.

Apple – it’s time you cut the cord.  I don’t want to play anymore.  I think it’s time that we start writing letters.  Or stop buying iPods or new computers or new software from Apple until they agree to break this unethical contract with AT&T.  We’ve clearly overloaded AT&T’s network, anyway – which likely would never have happened if Apple and AT&T hadn’t made this stupid contract in the first place.

The cost of the iPhone wouldn’t have to change – in fact, the competition would probably give Apple the traction they need to maintain their price points, with the added benefit to the consumer that carriers would compete to offer lower-cost iPhone plans.  The iPhone costs each user about $2,000 a year on AT&T – twice as much as a normal smart phone.  Can we finally agree that we’ve been bent over the table?

With 9 million iPhone users the US, we’ve got to have some say.