Of course, iPods are made by the HUGE company Apple. There is no way that they're going to provide other MP3 players support to use their software, because they want people to look and see the software and how great it is. Apple makes it so you're forced into buying an iPod.
As far as your battery concern goes, disregard it. I've never had any problems and neither have millions of other people who have iPods. If anything, the Hard Drive is going to die out before the battery does and that's usually the number one cause of iPods dying. The simple fix to this is just getting a flash player which doesn't have moving parts and won't burn out.
I love my iPod and I say that you should go for it. If you're afraid of looking like the rest of the crowd with the same generic white headphones and user interface just go with something different like the Zune.
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