Blue, you ARE being disingenuous. Your post was comparing your little Flash drive based MP3 Sandisk to a $299 (you said $200) 30GB (not 40GB if we’re listing errors) HD based iPod (as though thst were the only model available) not the original 2001 5GB model. That IS being disingenuous.
The Sandisk Companion YOU cited was only released for sale in April of 2004 for $135 US for the 512K model (Cruizer $55, Companion $80 -I looked it up!) so you could NOT have purchased it contemporaneously with a 1st Gen iPod anyway. In 2005, the 30GB iPod was selling for $299. The first “pack of gum” lanyard style iPod 1GB Shuffle was released almost three years ago on January 11, 2005 for $149.. 512k for $99. When you say you bought your Sandisk in 2005, its competitor was the Shuffle not the HD iPod!
Yes, Apple did replace the Shuffles that failed under warranty... Less than 1% failure rate of the over 10 million that were sold in the first nine months.
Re: the review - it was the first and only review that came up on a Google search among a host if sales sites. It must be getting the most hits.
Oh, sorry I misread the April 2004 price list for the Sandisk Cruzer 512. I cited the list price for the 128K model. The 512K model Cruzer Micro plus Companion was $250!!!! That’s $169.99 for the Cruzer plus $79.99 for the Companion. Wow, what an over priced product.