Comments on: How many iPods are iLemons?

A Wall Street Journal article questions the iPod's reliability.

[mrzonker]

My mini is doing great

Just to balance it out, I've had a second gen mini since they were released. I still get pretty good battery power, and it has only ever frozen on me once, about a year ago.

[strykernyc]

$450 1yr later 1 battery replace 2 hard drive.

I paid $450 for my wifes Ipod 4th gen a few yrs back.
a week after the warranty expire the battery die so I had to buy a new battery $60, 2 weeks later the hd totally die and sometime the hd start working when I punch the ipod a few times on the back *** but it work yes it work for a little bit.

TOSHIBA IS THE ONLY COMPANY WHO MAKE HDS FOR THE IPODS.
WHY DOES TOSHIBA OFFER 5-3 YR WARRANTY ON THEIR HD IF YOU
PURCHASE THEIR IPOD HD SEPARATE?????? WHILE APPLE ONLY OFFER 1 YR WARRANTY???????????????
I THINK APPLE LOADS THEIR IPOD WITH A BUNCH OF CHEAP REFURBISHED HD TO SAVE HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS ON EACH IPOD.
IF THIS WASN'T THE CASE, THEN APPLE SHOULD OFFER 3-5 YRS WARRANTY ON THEIR HD . IS THAT SIMPLE.
BTW MY 3WEEKS OLD IPOD NANO FROZE THE FIRST DAY I TURN IT ON *** SO FAR I HAVENT EXPERIENCE ANY OTHER PROBLEM.

IPOD WITH NO HD LAST LONGER BECAUSE THEY USE FLASH MEMORY THATS IT.

[joshuaguttman]

I routinely throw my shuffle across the office

I routinely throw my shuffle across the office to show off its sturdiness. I wouldn't do that with my IPod video.

[jimmaynard]

No Problems Here!

I don't understand all this hype about iPod defects. I still have a FIRST
GENERATION 5 gig iPod, over 5 years old and no problems! Yes, I had to
replace the battery after about 3.5 years, but I passed it on to my brother
when I got a new 30 gig Video iPod last year. No problems with it.. and I
bought my partner a 20 gig iPod before that (2 years ago) and no problems
with it..
Sure there will be some problems, but I think Apple is correct about the less
than 5 percent of iPods with problems... and when you have sold as many
iPods as Apple has, there even a small percentage of problems will add up,
but it is probably much smaller as a percentage of total units than any of the
other MP3 players.. or any other comparable electronic device.
So lets stop this overblown iPod bashing.. Get a ZUNE if you can find another
Zune user to "squirt" before it quits working or they quit making them...

[protagonistic]

RE: How many iPods are iLemons?

My 20 gig iPod is approaching its 3rd birthday. The battery does need to be
replaced but that is understandable. For the 1st two years I used it two - four
hours a day five days a week at work. It was dropped a few times and got
some rough treatment all of which it took in stride. All you usually hear about
is the horror stories, but I am sure you could find mostly positive stories if
that is what you look for.

But, I guess one horror story makes for a far better headline than 100 stories
about how the iPod has never missed a beat. That, of course, is the nature of
news. Bad news sells while good news does not.

Anyway, just wanted to add my comments. I would have to rate my iPod
purchase as one of the best technology purchases I made. My iPod pretty
much sits on the desk these days plugged into a firewire port. There it serves
as a backup hard drive to store copies of my pictures and documents. It still
makes the occasional trip with me, though.

[tbcass]

No IPod for me

My Wifes IPod and my Creative Zen touch are about the same age (1 1/2 years +/-). My Zen gets much worse treatment and has been used much more. She is having trouble with her IPod while my Zen is fine. I will never buy another IPod!!!!

[westindiangal]

How many iPods are iLemons?

You can count two more! My first 20GB died about 14 months after purchase... it was the hard drive that gave in. I reupped and bought a 30GB hard drive. It is about 5 months old and is quite quirky. However, this time I purchased Apple Care. If this one dies out of warranty, I will move on to a Creative Zen.