iPood

His T-shirt was green with a drawing of a man sitting on the loo with those unmistakeable ipod cables coming out of his ears. iPood was written in fat, white letters under the toilet. Always up for a laugh, I smiled at the guy wearing it on the bus and told him I liked his shirt. With a very serious face he told me it's an anti-iPod campaign, as Steve Jobs has admitted to using components in iPods whose life-spans don't exceed 15 months. Seeing as it is more expensive to have them repaired after the warranty, Apple apparently hopes you will just buy a new one and upgrade.

Woah - hang on, hang on. Firstly, I'm an Apple shareholder. Secondly, I own a number of macs (okay, 2) and truckload of iPods (okay, 1) and I am applesolutely Apple-stir-crazy. Dude, have you not noticed how everything is made to break just after the warranty ends? From cars to vacuum cleaners, shoddy workmanship is where it's at! Yet, all of my Apple products are way beyond their warranties and none of them are giving me trouble.

Ok, he says, but Jobs ADMITTED that he does it.
When and where, asked I?
At a conference, when shareholders wanted to know who was going to buy the 20 and 30G iPod hard drives when they already had iPods. Steve Jobs said, "don't worry, guys - iPods are only built to last for 15 months."

I'm not buying it cos I can't find this admission on the oracle intraweb and my 'little blue' has been with me for 2.5 years already! Still like the iPood T-shirt though, just not as an anti-Appple campaign.