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WSJ on Broken iPods

This just in: our paper of record has joined the New York Times and Chicago Tribune in covering the broken iPod story.

When iPods Die:
Gripes Over Breakdowns Grow as Players Become Ubiquitous
Wall Street Journal, December 6, 2006

[ Full text below the fold; image from the Wall Street Journal ]

 

...which reminds me: the deadline is dawning for our broken iPod art project. If you have a broken iPod and would like to contribute, please get your photos in as soon as you can.

When iPods Die
Gripes Over Breakdowns Grow
As Players Become Ubiquitous;
The Drop-Start Technique
By NICK WINGFIELD
Wall Street Journal
December 6, 2006; Page D1

This holiday season Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod is once again a top seller in stores and the music player's white earphones remain a nearly ubiquitous sight on city streets and at gyms. But as it reaches deeper into the mainstream, more users are becoming familiar with a new sense of loss: the death of an iPod.

Among users of the device, it's long been common to hear of iPods laid low by batteries that no longer hold a charge, malfunctioning hard disks and screens with cracks. In some cases, problems are caused by users who accidentally drop their iPods or otherwise subject them to abuse, but other users say their iPods go belly up even after normal use.
[Graphic]

The iPod's durability could become a more important issue as consumers become less dazzled by cutting-edge technology and more concerned about longevity, especially for a device that can cost hundreds of dollars.

"Some people swear there's a self-destruct mechanism in it after the warranty is up," says Matthew Bremner, a founder of iRepair.ca, an iPod fix-it service with a store in Toronto and on the Internet. "For a small device that's that expensive it probably should last a little longer."

Steve Dowling, a spokesman for Apple, based in Cupertino, Calif., says the rates at which iPods fail -- less than 5% -- are "extremely low" compared with other electronics devices. "IPods are designed to last for years, but as with any complex consumer-electronics product such as digital cameras, they can be broken if dropped or mishandled by users," says Mr. Dowling, who adds that the "overwhelming majority" of iPod users are happy with their devices.

Even if only a tiny percentage of iPods malfunction, the huge popularity of the devices means a significant number of users could be affected. Apple has sold nearly 70 million iPods in the five years since the product first went on sale. If just under 5% of that number failed, that could still amount to millions of affected devices. Apple declined to comment on the specific number of iPods that have failed.
WSJ.COM FORUMS

[Go to Discussion]
Have you had problems with your iPod? What did you do? How would you gauge Apple's handling of complaints? Join a discussion.

Tom Westrup, an investment professional in Austin, Texas, has had worse luck than most with iPods. Mr. Westrup says he bought his first iPod online three years ago and it quickly began freezing up while playing songs. Resetting the device solved the problem only temporarily, so Mr. Westrup says he sent his iPod into Apple for a replacement.

The problems occurred again with the new iPod. He says he visited a technician at a local Apple retail store, who raised the possibility that Mr. Westrup's problems were being caused by his PC but the technician couldn't say how to diagnose the glitch. So Mr. Westrup says he again swapped his iPod for a replacement from Apple through the mail.

Mr. Westrup says he is now awaiting his fifth iPod replacement from the company after similar problems with subsequent replacements; the company has continued sending replacement models despite the expiration of Apple's standard one-year warranty. (IPod users can extend the coverage period to two years from the device's purchase date for $59.)

Mr. Westrup says he and his wife used the iPods carefully during activities such as walking their dogs or working out on an elliptical trainer. "I'm 51 years old -- I'm not a teenager throwing it across the room," he says. "I wouldn't say I'm abusing it."
WSJ.COM VIDEO

[Go to Video]
More consumers are raising questions about the lifespan of iPods, battery issues, repairs and easily scratched -- or cracked -- screens. WSJ's Bryan Keogh reports.

The best-known complaint about the iPod, dating back to its earliest models, is about its battery. Many users grumble that the charge of the lithium-ion battery inside the device appears to get progressively shorter the more they use the music player. Last year, Apple agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit brought by users whose iPods saw significantly diminishing battery life, agreeing to compensate owners of certain early iPod models $25 in cash or with a $50 Apple credit on Apple products.

What ticks off many users is that the iPod's battery and other parts are not designed to be replaced by the average user. There are no screws on the outside of its case that allow iPods to be easily disassembled, giving the device a sleek, unblemished appearance. Apple replaces the batteries on out-of-warranty iPods for $65.95, including shipping charges.

Hard disks, which are used in higher-end iPods to store songs, can also fail. Bill Torpey, a software developer in New York, says the iPod he bought for his daughter, now in high school, a couple of years ago stopped working after the product's warranty expired, and the hard disk inside of it started making a strange noise.

After doing some research online, Mr. Torpey decided on a somewhat daring fix for the problem: He held the iPod about six inches above a desk and dropped it.
[The iPod family of models, including the Nano and Shuffle.]
The iPod family of models, including the Nano and Shuffle.

The fix worked for a few weeks, he says, but then the iPod stopped functioning again. Meanwhile, an iPod Mr. Torpey bought for his son also has begun acting up, restarting itself seemingly at random. "Caveat emptor," he says. "I won't buy another one."

For such situations, there's a cottage industry of independent iPod repair shops that offer replacement services for less than what Apple charges for comparable repairs, including do-it-yourself battery replacement kits ranging from $25 to $35 that usually include a special tool for prying open the iPod. In his experience, Mr. Bremner of iRepair.ca estimates iPod batteries, on average, last about two years before needing to be replaced.

Despite the beefs, consumers' love affair with the iPod shows no sign of going sour. In spite of determined competitors in the portable-player market like Microsoft Corp. and SanDisk Corp., Apple's share of the market for 2006 will likely end up roughly where it was last year, between 73% and 75%, says Stephen Baker, an analyst at retail sales tracker NPD Group Inc.

In an online survey of more than 6,400 consumers that NPD conducted earlier this year, the firm found that 82% of iPod owners were completely or very satisfied with the device, compared with 76% for rival music devices.

The iPod's shortcomings "haven't impacted their sales any that I can tell," says Mr. Baker. "However widespread, obviously customers are not considering [a lack of durability] an issue."

There's also no getting around that the iPod is a sensitive piece of electronics and that some users are simply too rough with them. Ryan Arter, president of ResQ Systems LLC of Kansas City, Kan, says most of the devices his iPod repair service, iPodResQ.com, receives from customers are damaged by, for instance, being dropped on the ground or tossed around inside a book bag.

Some of Mr. Arter's customers don't immediately fess up to the causes of the technical problems, even when their iPods have dented cases. As a general rule, he says, "natural" iPod failures tend to occur with devices that are a year old or older.

Mr. Arter says roughly a third of the iPod repairs his company does are for damaged screens, a third for batteries and a third for other miscellaneous problems like hard-disk failures. He adds that newer models of iPods appear to be getting more durable. Mr. Arter says his company has seen far fewer repair requests for Apple's new version of the iPod Nano than it did for the first iPod Nano, a slim device for which iPodResQ saw replacement orders for cracked screens quickly after its release.

As pricey as many models of the iPods are, some users seem to accept the idea that their iPods are more or less disposable, a phenomenon common in the cellphone market where users regularly upgrade to more stylish models. One gauge of that, Mr. Arter says, is the growing popularity of a buyback option iPodResQ.com offers for iPods with technical problems. Rather than pay to have the devices repaired, growing numbers of its customers opt to sell them for parts to iPodResQ, typically for between $35 and $95 -- money that can then be applied to the purchase of a new iPod.
[iPOD problems chart]

Write to Nick Wingfield at nick.wingfield@wsj.com