What is the lifespan of an Ipod battery?

[PowerBloke]

I am a huge fan of the new ipod, but I am curious about the lifespan of the battery. Sure, a charge lasts eight hours, but for how many years (and let's hope it's years) can the battery hold its charge before it is deemed useless. My cell phone batterie poops-out after about a year...and if the ipod battery does go bad, is there a remedy or does it become a phenominal looking paperweight?

I realize even the old ipods haven't been around long enough for historical data to be relevant, but is there history of these types of batteries and their lifespan?

ps. I'm new to this posting game.

 

[Eniregnat]

Given the type of battery (Li ion), it should give Apple's avrage use stasticts (8+ hours at a time) for 3 years. In pratice though , again this is all supposition, I would expect the battery life to slowly drift down, by an hour per year, so that in three years it would run around 5+ hours.

 

[Jaykay]

I hear the new ipod batteries are not supposed to last as long as the the old ones. Is this true?

 

[CrackedButter]

Yeah only 8 hours as opposed to 10.