iPod longevity and failure rates

So, given these quotes:

Rob Enderle, principal analyst for Enderle Group in San Jose estimates that 15 percent of iPods will fail within one year. The analyst noted that a 15 percent failure rate is roughly comparable to other small electronic devices.

One online survey suggests that Apple's iPod failure rate is around 14 percent--half of which were battery related and half of which were related to the hard drive found in Apple's larger-size iPods. Some industry watchers, however, believe that sheer numbers--which are quite large as Apple has sold over 40 million units total--are responsible for most reported iPod troubles.

"Any time you have that many of anything," some will fail to function properly, according to Bob O'Donnell, vice president at IDC.

There's about 5.5-6 million failed iPods out there. That means there is a *combined* 2.3-2.5 million other failed HDD based players out there, spread across all the other makers. And that's following the normal statistical rates of other devices. If you sold 70% of your market and have failure rates that match your competitors, you obviously have more people complaining about your failed products. Simple numbers, but it seems some online pundits can't do simple math. That's why I take all stories about how horrible iPods failure rates are with a huge grain of salt when they start going on about all the people complaining online.

Now imagine all the space in landfills these "disposable" consumer products are taking up.

I know that Apple has a recycling program, but does any literature about it come with new Macs or iPods? I haven't bought a new Apple product since they started the consumer recycling program, so I don't know.