[vivaldirules]

To answer your original question, if my Sony dies, the company goes bankrupt, and none of my files are available to me any more, I think it will have been a terrific investment even if I only get two or three years useful life out of it. And I would probably be looking for the best possible replacement and start over, if I had to. It's just that good for me. Most of my costs have been the reader purchase, not in content (since there ain't hardly any for sale). That's way different than the ipods my daughters have. They pay (proportionate to the hardware) lots for new music and they want to listen it for years to come. Replace "Sony" above with "Apple" and I think they'd be hurting - and broke trying to replace it all.