Is it just bad luck, or built-in obsolescence? Gone Mad....

I bought my new washing machine back in March 2010 - And I bought a 3 year extended warranty as well (I couldn't afford the one with 5 year warranty). See. http://tvspongers.blogspot.com/2010/04/bad-timing.html

And true to form, a month after the 1 year anniversary, the machine died. So I contacted the good people at  Hotpoint and told them the story, and they sent an engineer to sort it out - And I didn't think or write anything about it...

Last week, we had another problem, the washing machine just died (now 15 month old), no power, no life, nothing - So, and once again, I phoned the good people at Hotpoint, and they sent an engineer today...

He changed the motherboard, photos below....

The third photo is a bit blurry, I was trying to take a photo without the man looking....

So I ask one more time, is that fault by design or just another case of bad luck....