Makes me glad I chose an iRiver MP3 player over the iPod. The iRiver takes a standard "AA" battery that lasts close to 20 hours. I can deal with that. Doesn't hold as much music as an iPod but it's easy enough to dump and reload tunes as I need to.
More importantly, the iRiver costed less than half of what they were charging for the iPod.
Don't get me wrong, I loved the iPod. But having to replace a $255 battery (plus $70 installation) after 18 months must really suck!
Interesting. My wife has had an ipod for two years and the battery is going strong. No problems at all.
It's called planned obsolescence.