Life span of iPod touch 4G?

Sometimes iPods fail because of a hardware problem. This can happen at any time. Otherwise they will last many years with the exception of the battery. Battery life decrease with age as well as use. Apple says:

Charge Cycles

A properly maintained iPod battery is designed to retain up to 80% of its original capacity at 400 full charge and discharge cycles. You may choose to replace your battery when it no longer holds sufficient charge to meet your needs.

I still have a first gen that works just fine.

roaminggnome wrote:

I still have a first gen that works just fine.

So does my original iPad.

Unless you get an iPod that fails prematurely, the battery life will just get shorter with time.

I have a 3G iPod Nano which I got in 2008. It works fine except the battery life is a lot shorter that it was originally.