I find that that is the least safe way to go. I treat my laptop gently enough that it’s unlikely to drop or get wet and the two desktops are safely in our respective bedrooms so only a fire is likely to take them out. The only real risk I face with the desktops is hard drive failure.
OTOH, my iPod is strapped to my bicep as I work in a machine shop with coolant spraying, hot metal chips flying, and the occasional heavy casting swinging on a chain hoist. I cracked the front cover of my Sansa e280 with a 95-pound pump impeller. One of my coworkers shattered the screen of his iPod Touch by dropping it on concrete. An absent-minded friend of mine has lost at least three MP3 players and two phones in teh laundry. Bad things happen, especially to portable electronics!
As you can see, portable electronics are far more likely to suffer catastrophic damage than most computers, so I rely on them for storage rather than something that may get killed at any moment.
Another thing is that all electronics wear out at some point, especially is they are used a lot. At best, the only thing that will go on an iPod is the battery (they have a limited lifespan, especially Lithium-ion batteries like those in an iPod) but repeated thermal stress can cause other parts to fail over time. Hard drives wear out. Everything dies eventually, and you have to do what you can to make sure you don’t lose any data when (not if, when) that happens. Even with the redundant hard drive storage, I stil burn the occasional DVD-R to make sure I keep my stuff.