No, they shouldn’t die in less than a year. The warranty declares that the company doesn’t expect them to and it replaces them if they do.
But that’s under normal use. Given the number of posts here, which is actually a sample skewed toward people having trouble, I don’t see early burnout as a typical problem.
By the way, the fabulous iPod Shuffle warranty is also one year, with lots of conditions.
http://www.apple.com/legal/warranty/products/nios-ipod-english-row.html
