OS X :: Apple Products Not Made To Last

Has anyone else experience a problem with apple products, where it seems just over the year warrenty, your ipod, or mac starts to play up?

I bought a Macbook in September 2007, I was always extremely careful with it, only used it for home use (barely ever took it out to uni or friends), and used the disc drive only when putting cds onto itunes, or watching installing software. Yet, by December-January of 2008, the Disc drive was making funny noises, and stopped working. Again, I never overused it, nor did I underuse it, I was always careful with my macbook, and yet the drive just went. I can't afford to replace the drive, nor can I afford to purchase a new computer, so I've continued using it.

My ipod 120g, which I got for Christmas last year, has recently started to play up. It frequently freezes, sometimes doesn't show up on the computer, etc. Now for both of these products, the warrenty expired either days or a couple of months after these problems occured, so I have no help from apple.

My question is, has anyone else experienced this phenomenom? To me it seems almost as if Apple only design their products to last a year, expecting people to upgrade and thus fork out more money. Let me make this clear that I love using Mac OS x, it's pure quality, fast and efficient, but the hardware just doesn't match it's quality. I really wanted to continue to be a mac owner in the future, and yet, I refuse to fork out yearly for an upgrade.

I know there is the option of a 3 year warrenty with apple, but it costs an absolute bundle, $400 if I were to buy the $2000 (aussie dollars) macbook pro, so I won't be doing that. Also, I don't think it's ethical to expect your customers to fork out approx. 20% of the cost price for a guarentee that your machine won't break down for 2 extra years.

To me, Apple is, Apple has become, the Microsoft of the 21st Century.