Last spring I bought a huge mobile phone, the XDA IIs, on ebay for a bargain price. It had all the bells and whistles a smart phone should: 400MHz XScale CPU, Wi-Fi, Windows Mobile, a camera, SD slot and a sharp and bright 3.5" LCD screen. It was brand-new and unlocked so I was a happy chappy.

One month in and I made the mistake of taking it to a game of beach cricket. I fell over and that large beautiful screen flexed and promptly shattered. Although the rest of the phone still works it is now useless.

The number one priority for consumers everywhere must be that a mobile phone is built like a tank to survive day to day battles with keys, wallets and minor tumbles.

The only other XDA IIs owner I've ever met also shattered his screen. He dropped his XDA onto some carpet in a hotel and the screen cracked. Luckily for him, he had insurance that meant his phone was replaced with 24 hours.

So what is the relevance to iPods? Well rumours everywhere suggest a true widescreen iPod will arrive just before or after Christmas. It will have a large touch-screen LCD and a very thin bezel framing it: a recipe for disaster.

We had a hugely negative response to our blog on the 5th generation iPod in October 2005 about scratches, oil-slick effects behind the LCD and plain old cracks. My prediction is that you ain't seen nothing yet. A widescreen iPod may make all other iPod problems fade into insignificance as users around the world forget that they are actually carrying a large piece of glass, as well as an mp3 player, in their pocket.