Apple Thoughts: Replacement Ear Buds For 3rd Generation iPod Shuffles

"Apple's perverse obsession with miniaturizing the iPod Shuffle doesn't seem likely to stop until they bring it down to the size of a nanoangstrom, but one of the biggest drawbacks of making a music player smaller than the controls needed to use it is that the user interface needs to be offloaded to a peripheral: in the third generation iPod Shuffle's case, the stock ear buds."

It appears they have run into some problems, as Apple has started a replacement program for the ear buds that stop working, free of charge, for up to two years from date of purchase. These were made during the period from February 2009 to February 2010.