iPods - Issues Through the Years

Apple iPods have become the standard for MP3's. They have swept over the nation and dominated sales over all the competition. Apple has sold over 160 million iPods and the count is growing as we speak. Still, everything is not so great in the iPod world. There have been a couple issues that have brought up to Apple about their iPods. Here are the three biggest issues that have been accused of Apple.

Issue One: False Battery Information

When observing the advertisements for Apple iPods, you will notice many characteristics. One fact that sticks out is the battery life, which is a must-know in order to buy one. Reports have stated that the information that Apple provides about these iPods may be true, but aren't factual in regards to real-world achievability. For example, a report done showed the fifth generation 30GB iPod averaged a battery life of less than eight hours. Advertising from Apple, however, showed that the iPod could go up to fourteen hours without needing to be charged.

In 2003, a lawsuit was brought up against Apple saying the battery lengths lasted for a shorter amount of time and that the battery actually degraded over time, too. Apple settled this lawsuit by offering store credit to customers or give them a free battery replacement. After the incident, Apple announced a battery replacement program. It was a program set up that allowed users to buy new batteries for $99. Then, in 2005, they ended up lowering the price to $59. One week after lowering the price, Apple offered an extended warranty for this price.

While they charged for batteries, third-party businesses began generating replacement kits for iPod users to replace their own batteries. Apple stated that users should buy new iPods because all lithium-ion batteries will lose their capacity over time. After a while, more and more users began shifting over to Apple instead of trying to replace their own batteries.

Issue Two: Durability

In a 2005 survey, a poll found that 13.7% of iPods had experienced some failure. In late 2005, many users complained that the iPod Nano was easily scratched and would ruin the screen, ultimately ruining the iPod. While Apple decided this was not a major issue at first, they later decided to ship all iPods with a protective sleeve to protect the iPods from breaking down so easily.

Issue Three: Worker Exploitation

In 2006, a British newspaper reported that iPods are manufactured by workers who do not earn $50 per month and are forced to work fifteen hour shifts. Apple investigated and discovered this was the case in some of the plants. When performing a search, they found that workers had been working longer than Chinese laws had allowed them. Verite, an auditing company, was hired to oversee the manufacturing of the iPod to prevent this from occurring again.

Wikipedia, iPod