Doc,

I think the original poster meant to say iPod and not iTunes. I do think he has a point regarding batteries. I have an iPod mini that I bought in 2004 that is an excellent condition and works fine but the battery just wont hold a charge.

I believe it costs $65 for Apple to replace the battery and mail it back to me. Assuming it costs $5.00 to mail them the unit, that's $70 to replace a battery.

I guess I'm just falling into the trap but I'm hesitant to spend $70 on a 4 year old MP3 player that has lived in my glovebox (with all the summer heat and winter cold) for 4 years. The equivelant modern unit, an iPod nano (4 gig) goes for $150. If a new battery went for $30, I would just buy that and risk the unit dying in the next year due to unrelated issues. But for $70, I'd rather just spend $150 and get a new unit with warranty.

To be fair, we live in a disposable society, where consumer goods are very cheap compared to just a few years ago. Most consumer electronics are cheap enough to buy new that they're not worth fixing.

While if my iPod dies, I'll just toss the thing... About 20 years ago, I can remember spending around $200+ on a CD player that eventually died out of warranty, and going to our local electronic shop to get it fixed. Prior to the 1990's, TVs were expensive enough that they were worth fixing when they had issues, the same went with appliances.

I just can't imagine getting 15+ years out of a new TV, stereo, washing machine, or dishwasher. They're cheap enough that it's hardly worth paying a repair man $50/hour to mess with them. Things might be different with the $2000 HD TVs but I dunno, as we still use our ca. 1994 CRT Zentih TV.

Planned obsolescence is alive and well.