I have a love-hate relationship with my iPod.

On the one hand, I can’t live without it. I live for music and love having a soundtrack to my life.

My parents bought me my first iPod about 2 years ago for my birthday, and from the first moment, I was hooked (almost as much as I now am with my Blackberry). An iPod is proof that time is relative. When I listen to my iPod, time flies by and boring tasks become enjoyable. Without my iPod, I am highly unmotivated. When it broke the first time — the battery stopped recharging properly — I gained at least 5 kilos. Going to the gym was no longer fun, so I simply stopped going. Not all of a sudden, but within a couple of months. Without my favorite songs to listen to, or the right mix of house remixes and R&B songs, the gym suddenly became a terrible chore. I felt a lot lazier.

Today was another case in point: For the past 12 months, I’ve been doing at least 45 minutes on the elliptical machine before doing a little bit of weights and of course abs (my big problem area), but today I couldn’t manage more than 30 minutes of cardio and 20 minutes of abs. I had no music to keep me distracted, and I just kept focusing on how hot the gym felt, and how bored and hungry I was.

Apart from the gym, I often listen to my iPod on the bus to work and when I’m walking back home. When I first came to Barcelona, I took a cab everywhere I went, so I really didn’t need an iPod. But since becoming an entrepreneur, my lifestyle has changed dramatically, which means that I have become well acquainted with public transportation. Since I don’t particularly enjoy it (I think I’m a little bit claustrophobic), I usually try to have my iPod on to pass the time. And now with my Blackberry, I also stay in touch with various colleagues via Messenger on the Blackberry during the entire bus ride. Without my iPod, I tend to notice too much what the other people on the bus are doing, and that’s not always a desirable thing.

So if the iPod is so integral to my life, what do I hate about it? It’s highly unreliable. It’s like furniture from IKEA — built to last only for a couple of years, at most. A look at Wikipedia’s article on iPods notes that shortened battery life is one of the chief complaints against the iPod. In fact, in 2003, class action lawsuits were brought against Apple because of the battery life issue — they tend to last for less time than advertised and the battery gets even crappier over time. In response to the claim, Apple offered its customers a US$50 store credit or a free battery replacement.

I replaced my first dead iPod during Summer 2006 — 1 year after my parents had given it to me. I’m always complaining about the non-existent customer service in Spain, but I thought the service in the Apple Store absolutely stunk. There were about 20 teenage, tech-geek employees who looked more interested in playing with each other than in serving customers. And I had to wait about 3 hours to get served — there was a very, very long line of people trading in their iPods because of the battery and other technical issues. When I finally got through, the slightly more mature (he was in his early 30s) nerd employee told me that I could get a new iPod by trading in my old one — and paying $60.

I gladly did it. I missed my iPod. And I needed to get back to the gym, particularly after 10 days of US-sized portions of Mom’s home-cooked meals.

Things were okay for a while, but within a month, my iPod’s health started to deteriorate again. I tried to ride it out, praying that it would get better, but now my iPod is almost completely dead. It plays 1 song and then tells me that the battery is dead. I’ve tried charging it both on my computer and with the regular plug, and nothing works. And it seems that there’s no hope that Apple will replace it in Spain. I could wait until I got back to the US, but I won’t be there for another 2 months!

So now the hard question: Do I buy another one? And if so, which one?

Part of me wants to get the iPod video, which my friend Carlos Mantero bought a few months ago and is now trying to sell to me. (By the way, I have to say that Carlos is one of the coolest 17-year-olds that I’ve ever met. He’s incredibly hard-working, able to withstand a tough boss with sometimes tough criticisms, and still does it with a smile while finding time to blog, twitter and eat all day. — To be 17 again! (sigh) — Carlos is already so mature and precocious for his age that I can’t wait to see what he’s going to be like once he finishes high school!)

Another part of me wants to wait for the iPhone, but it seems like it’s going to be so expensive, and I’m already quite happy with the combination of my iPod and my Blackberry. But everyone is raving about the iPhone, and I want to be cool too! I don’t want to be a low-tech loser!

Apple has been incredibly lucky has developed an incredible marketing plan — has created an iPod experience– that causes people to buy millions of iPods, even though the product itself has fundamental flaws. The lawsuits and the long lines at the Apple repair desks show that I am not alone in my problems with the iPod. The iPod is far from perfect. But we all keep going back for more punishment.

The strange thing is that, at first, I didn’t even know that I needed an iPod. I only knew that I wanted one.

But now I have it absolutely clear that I need an iPod. It’s no longer a choice. It has improved my life in ways that seem trivial but that bring me inordinate happiness in my daily life. (Anyone remember going to the gym with diskmen, or having to flip the tape on your walkman before that?) I can’t imagine life — or the gym — without my iPod, even though it continues to taunt and disappoint me.

I often ask myself why I just don’t buy one of the many iPod clones. After all, Apple apparently doesn’t develop its own technology, so what difference would it make?

But at the end of the day, the answer is simple: The clones are simply not cool enough! An iPod is not a fungible commodity. It’s an experience - a part of my self-identity, and certainly that’s worth a few hundred euros, right?

That’s powerful marketing!

So I guess I’ll be going to buy another iPod and hope that it will last a little bit longer the third time around.