Another dead 40 G - Is there a solution for this?

Question

Hi,
I'm about to receive my second replacement for the 4th generation 40 G ipod. My first 40 G lasted for more than one year, this second one has only lasted 7 months. I've always treated my ipods better than my own daughter. After the first break, I'm so scared to break it that I only use it at home while reading a book in the coach.
I don't know how long will last this third ipod but I'm sure that it will be the last one. The two years extended warranty that I purchased will expire in few months and Steve Jobs considers that he doesn't have to replace it anymore.
How is it possible that these 4th generation 40 G keep dying and Apple has not yet proposed to replace this defective product by a more "reliable" generation?
Does anybody know how to get another generation/type of ipod that last more than a year?
PC   Windows XP  
PC   Windows XP  

Answer 1

Your experience isn’t isolated but I don’t think it is the norm, either. If it were, some lawyer would have started a 4G dead iPod class action lawsuit, I’m sure.
Until the Nano, all iPods have been hard drive based and, let’s face it, a hard drive is a sensitive beast. If your iPod is jarred at just the right time (when it is accessing data) the potential for disaster is huge. This winter while I was talking about this with a buddy I suddenly thought about the hundreds of hours my iPod has sat in my car driving on rough roads...I shuddered. And look at how we use them. Mine has spent lots of hours in the cold while walking the dog, shoveling snow, etc - and then brought inside where its warm and humid. It’s sat in my pocket as I’ve ridden my bike getting all hot and sweaty. In short, iPods, even when we are careful to not drop them or knock them around, get treated pretty roughly. The only piece of electronics I know of that gets similar treatment is a cellphone—and mine doesn’t have a hard drive.
And one final thought. We took (an admittedly unscientific) survey in our user group this past winter. Two things struck me and I’d love to see a much larger reliable survey to see if our results were a fluke. First, the large majority reported that their iPod had never died or been sent back to Apple (excluding battery replacement). Second, almost half the people who reported sending their iPod back reported sending back more than one. I don’t mean to suggest that the multiple replacement people are abusing their iPods but I think it is possible that their lifestyle and habits just don’t get along with hard drive based iPods.
This is, I guess, a long winded way of suggesting that you take a look at the Nano.