Our analytics department released some interesting numbers this morning.
Based on the rate of claims made on the thousands of iPod warranties issued by SquareTrade, the Apple iPod Classic purchased in brand-new condition has a 12.4% failure rate in its first year of use. By comparison, the iPod Nano measures in with only a 5.2% failure rate.
These numbers run across hardware generations and only represent mechanical or electrical failures covered by the standard warranty. They do not include Accidental Damage claims.
The now-discontinued 40 GB model, long regarded as the problem child of the iPod line, has the largest percentage of claims of all the iPod Classics, followed by the 20 GB. Problems typically range from docking/synching errors, freezing during playback or simply refusing to turn on. The 60 GB and 30 GB models show 9% and 9.4% normal-use failures respectively, well under the curve.
The Nano tends to brick in the same way, but on a smaller scale. Apple's popular 2 GB Nano shows 7.2% failures in the first year, but the 4 GB version drops to only 3.8%. Nanos use more durable flash drives over the Classic's hard drive, which might explain their greater reliability.
However, CompactFlash II drives didn't help the Nano's predecessor, the iPod Mini. According to our claims data, the overall Mini failure rate is stable at nearly 13%, usually due to standard-use hardware failures.
In all cases, attempts to reset these iPod did not fix the problem, and more extensive repairs - or complete refunds - were necessary.
It's too early in the life cycle of the 80 GB and 160 GB Classics (and the 8 GB Nano) to release accurate numbers on their reliability, but there were no significant hardware changes from the previous generation and reports of software issues persisted through November. Nevertheless, the iPod's infamous battery issues seem to be on the decline, and given that the overall failure rate across all makes and models is only 8.4%, it is unlikely that Apple will make any major manufacturing changes anytime soon.
iPod warranty, iPod insurance
