Is there any good reason to buy an ipod?

Question

a few months after the warranty ended, my ipod shuffle refused to be recognized recognized by any computer
i researched and read up and tried everything including imacs, g5's, laptops, desktops and every flavour of windows and linux i could find to get it to be recognized
defeated, i hauled it to local apple store
the geniuses at the genius bar affirmed there was nothing to be done for the ipod:
nothing?
yes, nothing.
is there no way to fix it?
does anyone fix anything any more?
was the apparantly rhetorical response.
this strikes me as odd for so many reasons
leaving the absurdity of the response aside as an amusing anecdote, what confuses me is how a product with no moving parts can "break"
regardless
i accept that without an extended service plan i'm on my own
but if the little buggers last only a little while
and can't be repaired when they stop working
i wonder
is there any reason to even consider buying another one?
i've looked briefly and there are plenty of other options with more fnctionality for less $$.
-- BDD

Answer 1

In response to mary-
As simple as it seems, the price of most consumer goods drop the longer its been on the market, especially electronics and MP3 players. The demand is so large Apple can sell shuffles for 150 when they come out. 18 months after its release a shuffle is now its $99!
So even if you are complaining that you have no fix for your shuffle and it its now unusable there is nothing you could do now. Yet you had a whole year to replace yours at no cost. I did it with mine. Walked in into the apple store. Talked with an employee, setup an appointment at the Genius Bar. Came back in an hour for the appointment, and handed over my broken shuffle, he tested it, and handed me a refurbished one and some paperwork. Done.
Now I know your views on the shufle have turned sour but I find it hard to believe there are more cons than pros for this product. Keep in mind this is made for a single user, therfore only one computer is necessary- If Apple allowed it on more computers like the other iPods, they would have to raise the price of the shuflfe to take into account the cost of sharing protected files across computers. If you say it can only be loaded with iTunes, well thats not bad at all. What other software would you use?
A few notable cons that you may not find useful now that yours is broken but would hopefully shed some light on why people actually buy this product:
-It is extremely small, allowing for use anywhere.
-If dropped from your hand, it does not disconnect from the headphones, saving it from damage.
-It weighs less than one ounce.
-It has 12 hour battery life, a flash hard drive, a simple but informative interface, battery indicator, LED, all in a .33 inch package.
-It can be used as a flash drive
-It can be charged in any USB port, even 1.1 speed ports found on Apple keyboards.
Keep in mind an MP3 player does not last forever, but people still seem to like it. Say on average the shuffle one year (which seems low). $99 (or $69) a year is worth it to most people. Just my .02