Even if it is 15% .. How many of those people do you think confessed they dropped it at one point or another

I work for a reseller and I can assure you that many failures are due to user damage. I estimate that 50% of ipods that I see coming back with a "fault" have physical damage other than scratching. iPods get dropped a lot! I have, however, witnessed a badly dented iPod mini (had been cartwheeled down the pavement) go back to Apple and actually get replaced under warranty! If it was my decision I would have rejected any warranty on it, hence I was stunned when Apple sent them a new one.

Unfortunately this kind of exceptional customer service rarely get's reported though.

Is 3.5 years old, I use it every day, and it still has about 75% of it's original battery life life. And I believe the survey people keep mentioning the 15% failure rate was the one MacIntouch did a while ago. It was a very interesting and informative survey, but I think even they said that "failure" included that caused by damage to the iPod (dropping, water, etc). Plus it was a voluntary online survey, which if you are familiar with survey practices, you know will be biased towards the negative. People with a bad experience are much more likely to respond to file their grievance than those with good "unexciting" experience.

Am I the only one who notices that sometimes the MacNN articles -- and especially their headlines -- seem designed for controversy and not accuracy?

I've dropped mine at least 5 times from normal operating height (i.e. between waist and chest). No problems. It's a '01 "vintage" iPod with a replacement battery, been used almost every day since I got it. 100% happy.

What stupid moron made that up? Why only four years? You can replace the battery and the hard drive so I really don't see a limit of 4 years unless you really abuse your iPod so much and run it over with your car. Another FUD story I'm afraid.

Mr. Underware gets his facts from his a** and should be writing for the enquirer where babies come from mars. He has no clue about technology and most real tech writers find him really iritating! If your iPod failed within the first year you are covered under warranty. I bet the precentage is much lower anyways. Like I said I wouldn't trust Mr. Underwares facts if my life depended on it because he would be the one to get me killed!

Let's put the product life in perspective. Our economy defined a durable good as having a product life of five years. A four year life for an electronic devise is good. Would I like my iBook or Nano to last for more than four years? Sure, who wouldn't.

Remember that cell phone you just replaced? Yeah, the one you picked up last year sort of for free, with the $59.99 per month fee. Do the math.

Regards, !

...left her 3G iPod in the car, in the sun, in 114 degree Modesto, CA for most of last Saturday. Too hot to touch when I found it, let it cool down, works perfectly! I think a lot of other devices would have ended up with a melted case. In my family we have 1G, 2G, 3G & 5G pods and except for the odd battery, they have been problem free.

I own a touch-wheel (the best...), a first-generation and a click wheel i-pod. I must have dropped all of them tens of times. I avoid USB-charging (too weak, too slow and bad for the batteries. I actually dropped the quickwheel from my balcony to a stone terrace one floor down. It cracked open on the terrace and paused itself... I squeezed the halves together and continued using it. The touchwheel is three years old and after a total discharge and recharge runs at 90 percent of the original battery-life. I recently replaced the battery of the original since it was at abt 60 percent of it's original battery life. A few years ago, I thought I had lost it. This was around the christmas holidays. Temperatures were minus 12 celcius. When after about a week I foound the Ipod under my car seat, it was still near fully charged...

It's like anything else, take care of it, and it'll fail prematurely; abuse it, and it'll last forever.

I'm kidding, of course, but my 10GB 2G iPod is still going strong on its first battery, and it stays in the center console in my car - vibration, 100+ heat, 10- cold, not things conducive to long life in electronics.