Comments on: Oops. Did I Say That?

By: Will

Will — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 00:13:25 +0000

This is rediculous. If I pay ~$300 for anything, I expect it to last at least 10 years (actually, $30 per year is still too much). I guess I won’t be purchasing one of these things any time soon. Thanks for the tip.

By: Candles

Candles — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 23:12:26 +0000

ipod i pod mini…

Great site! I’ll be back to check it out again. Thanks!…

By: Candles

Candles — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 18:53:33 +0000

i pod mini…

Great site! I’ll be back to check it out again. Thanks!…

By: Candles

Candles — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 16:10:52 +0000

apple i pod…

Great site! I’ll be back to check it out again. Thanks!…

By: Amos Moses Griffin

Amos Moses Griffin — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 14:08:57 +0000

That military grade iPod sounds rad… but I’m not paying three times as much so point well taken. On a side note military grade anything sounds cool. Good useage there SP.

By: SP

SP — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 13:47:57 +0000

I think the point made by Joel about diminishing returns is very true. MTBF of components is just one aspect, by the way. Sure, it would be possible to make a unit that lasted “forever”. But would you be willing to pay three times as much for a “military grade” :-) iPod with a life expectancy of, say, 10 years, or ten times as much to last 15 years?

By: Amos Moses Griffin

Amos Moses Griffin — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 12:56:40 +0000

As far as whose fault the misunderstanding is I’m not prepared to cast blame on either party simply because I wasn’t there. As “A reader” mentioned could have been an editor looking for headlines. Who knows? It happened. My point was wrapped in an assumption. The assumption being iPods can last a very, very long time but my assumption was flavored by my ignorance of how the internal mechanics of these things work.

SP, thanks for the info. Helps me “get it” all a bit more I understand iPods are subjected to a lot of wear and tear and they’re continually being replaced by newer versions, though I see this as the marketing-consumption side of things. I just think it’d be nice to have the option of keeping an iPod for 30 years (under normal wear and tear blah, blah). Probably wouldn’t do it but the option is nice. Instead of having to replace it in four years because that is its manufactured longevity. I get that people don’t really keep gadgets very long, myself included, but I assume we currently have the means, technology and ingenuity to create a hard drive that’ll last for say fifty years. Maybe we don’t but I assume we do. Do we? And if we do then I’d like to think Apple would create the iPod to last as long as the current technology allows.

Suppose what I’m rambling on about is, if my assumptions were correct, I’d rather Apple or any company make their products to the meet current technological limits instead of creating them based on the consumption habits of its users. Though Joel makes a good point about diminished returns, R&D, and batteries.

Maybe I’m getting too old. Turning into one of those “when I was a kid my Product X would still work after being in a street-fight with a washing machine and a lawnmower.” I fear I’m turning into my grandfather :)

By: Joel

Joel — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 11:56:19 +0000

ryan: sorry… what are the gumstick one’s called… shuffles, that’s it… sorry… scratch “mini” and replace with “shuffle” in the above.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 06:24:53 +0000

HATE to nitpick (:) not really) but iPod mini’s did have hard drives :p

By: Joel

Joel — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 06:18:15 +0000

An interesting point to make on your 8-track comment, your 8-track tape has never been replaced and has been used with the frequency of your ipod?

ipods (non-nano/mini) are HDD based devices, and are used in a similar fashion to walkmen. This in itself degrades the expected lifetime of the unit – i’m not sure I’ve seen too many people running around with their laptop in use and being subjected to the same sorts of relatively violent forces that the ipod does incase of comparisons there.

Battery life is another difficult topic. Battery lives have always been problematic – how many people own a phone over two years and continue to get even 75% of new performance from the battery? (Hands up anyone with a phone *over* two years old? What’s that, designed to last two years? ;))

It’s another example of engineering. Sure, you could do more on the front of lifespan of the product, but there’s a diminishing return at some point for extended lifespan from the money put in in both R D and manufacting/parts. No one is forcing you to purchase this product, it’s a choice, one requiring responsibility to understand the limitations before buying in (as with all choices).