Apple: iPods Last Four Years
Jul 28th, 2006 | By James Lewin | Category: iPods & Portable Media Players 
A Chicago Tribune article (subscription) takes a look at failure rates of Apple’s popular iPod music players, and reports that Apple designs them to last four years.
Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris assured the Tribune that iPods have a failure rate of less than 5 percent, which she called “fairly low” compared with other consumer electronics.
“The vast majority of our customers are extremely happy with their iPods,” she said, adding that an iPod is designed to last four years.
The Tribune article includes an alternate viewpoint, from the Enderle Group’s Rob Enderle, who estimates iPod failur rates at 15 percent.
Bob O’Donnell, a vice president at technology research firm IDC, said: “Any time you have that many of anything, some will not function properly.”
