My 18-month old iPod has started to fail to me. While in the UK earlier this month, my iPod (fourth generation 40 Gig) began to randomly shutdown and would not restart. "The vast majority of our customers are extremely happy with their iPods," Apple 
spokeswomen Natalie Kerrie said, adding that an iPod is designed to last four years.
On the contrary, a Chicago Tribune article recently exposed these problems and pointed to a study run by macintouch.com, a 12-year-old Apple website for Apple users. The study showed that more than 1,400 failed out of 9,000 iPods owned by some 4,000 respondents. The failure rate was reported at about 13.7% well above what Apple claims it should be. Gregg Radell, who started a company that repairs and refurbishes faulty iPods says, "the single weakest link" is the iPod's hard drive.
Regardless of these problems, Apple counts on its brand strength (and customer loyalty) to help weather the technical issues that plague its dominant music player. Most people, myself included, have grown so dependent on Apple's proprietary system that we are hard-pressed to switch.
Nonetheless, if the problems persist over the next couple years, look for consumers to weigh the merits of some of Apple's competitors' products, not the least of which is Microsoft's upcoming Zune.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-27-2006 @ 8:00PM
duncan said...
a) CE failure rates are 15% so the ipod is under the industry norm. i'm not saying 14% failure is good, just that apple shouldn't be held to a higher standard than the rest of the industry.
b) your personal anecdote is irrelevant. my first gen ipod (bought the day it was released) still get 6 hours of playback and works like a charm, despite being dropped, scratched and taken around the world twice. just because mine still works doesn't mean i think everyone else's ipod should still be working.
c) what's the failure rate of portable hard drives period? what's the break down of failures on each ipod model?
d) microsoft? you mean the company who suffered highly publicized failure's of their xbox 360 at launch? the company who has suffered a from a string of embarrassing security flaws? the company that is now 3 years late in shipping their next gen OS? yeah there's a company you buy in to for their top notch quality.
seriously you need to stop propagating the FUD that crops up online, as a blog pertaining to the stock performance of a company it's irresponsible to post spurious information.
7-27-2006 @ 11:18PM
Zune said...
Microsoft has a real chance with the zune, because it shares the same target audience as the xbox
7-27-2006 @ 11:56PM
Terrin said...
There is no way Natalie Kerrie said that an iPod is designed to last four years. Perhaps, she said the iPod is designed to last FOR years.
Apple legal would never allow a year to be disclosed. That would open a can of worms for any iPod failing before that. Moreover, the batteries alone do not last for four years. Finally, I doubt Apple even thought about the years the product would last. When have you ever heard a company announce how long a product ws designed to last? My answer is never. Kerry's quote was obviously misinterpreted.
7-28-2006 @ 9:53AM
Todd Ague said...
You could argue that a shorter lifespan for IPods actually means opportunity to sell more of them in the future -- improving future revenue potential for Apple. With the innovations being made in IPods (video, increased storage, smaller size), and Apple's commitment to ensuring future IPods are compatible with existing peripherals such as Bose's SoundDock, high discretionary income consumers (the most desireable ones) are likely to just replace their worn out IPods with the newest version without even thinking about it. They'll have too much invested in accessories, ITunes software learning curve, stored libraries, etc. to consider changing.
10-25-2006 @ 7:14AM
Zune Player said...
With Wi-Fi sharing and compatibility with PCs running Windows Media Center and Xbox360; Zune will have take a decent chunk of market share from Ipod. But how much only time will tell.