todge said:
Have you got a link for this press release? Are you sure you're not confused with the few nanos that shipped with screen which had dead pixels etc. I've never heard them say anything about them scratching more easily. Although I am often wrong.
You're right in that the article I am referring to was about the Nano, but it did include scratching as one of the issues. The article can be found here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4370906.stm
The relevant section is:
"The legal action follows a rash of complaints from iPod Nano users who reported cracked and
scratched screens.
Apple said a bad batch of Nanos had caused those problems and denied the device was more likely to scratch than other models of the popular player."
The article further states:
"It [the lawsuit] alleges that screen and controls in the Nano are beneath a film of resin much thinner than in other models. It alleges that other versions of the iPod do not scratch as easily because they are covered in a thicker, stronger plastic coat."
I added the bold by the way. So I read from this that Apple were acknowledging the scratch issue, but as part of a "bad batch". Given the above I am assuming that the same has happened to the Video iPod, but it is admittedly only an assumption.
In essence what I am saying is that I simply do not believe that people are being overly sensitive to scratches, nor am I saying that people who insist they have scratch free machines are lying. I believe both views are right and that there is indeed a "bad batch" around. Maybe a feature of the bad batch is a resin layer that is thinner than other batches, who knows?
I have a 4G 20G colour iPod, which I carry "naked" in my breast pocket when travelling on the tube listening to it and to date I have no significant scratches of note. However, after seeing Nano's on display soon after they were released on display in the Regent Street Apple store it was clearly obvious that the ones on display scratch very easily, particularly on the Black one, whose colour seems to highlight them more.
When I compare my own iPod experience with what I saw on the display machines it seems obvious there's an issue here.