Steve Jobs has ruled out any possibilities of iPhone-to-iPad tethering which would allow the iPad users to access the internet using iPhone’s 3G capabilities. In fact, the reply from Apple’s top boss was a point blank ‘No’ in an email reply to a query from a Swedish tech blog Slashat.se.

While there are speculations if the email reply was indeed from Steve Jobs, early forensic email tests have revealed that the message was indeed sent by the man himself. It is interesting to note that iPhone 3.0 included supports for tethering. In fact, most UK carriers including Vodafone, Orange and O2 cashed in on the tethering support to launch multiple iPhone tethering plans last year.

While tethering has been immensely popular in UK, it has not seen the light of the day in US, primarily because of the AT&T iPhone exclusivity deal. With the iPhone exclusivity in US slated to end this year, tethering might soon be a reality in US as well.

No iPhone-to-iPad tethering is certainly not likely to go well with existing iPhone 3G customers who’d be forced to shell out double the money to access internet on two separate devices – iPad and the iPhone 3G.

I’m sure Steve Jobs and Apple have their good reasons to prohibit tethering on the iPad and I’m hoping that those reasons would be made public sooner rather than later!