Almost six million computer batteries made by Sony Corp. are being recalled after a second computer maker warned yesterday that some of its notebook batteries could pose a fire hazard.
Apple Computer Inc. has begun a recall of 1.8 million lithium-ion notebook computer batteries, supplied by Sony, after nine devices overheated, causing minor burns to two users, U.S. regulators said.
"These lithium-ion batteries can overheat, posing a fire hazard to consumers," the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said in announcing the voluntary recall by Apple.
Apple, of Cupertino, Calif., said the defective batteries were used in Mac iBook and PowerBook computers sold through its retail stores, on-line and via authorized resellers between October, 2003, and this month.
Last week, Dell Inc. announced a similar recall of 4.1 million lithium-ion batteries made by Sony.
All the major PC manufacturers have used Sony batteries, including Hewlett-Packard Co., Lenovo Group Ltd., Gateway Inc. and Toshiba Corp., but because of the way these companies package the batteries they are unlikely to face their own recalls, said Richard Doherty, research director of Envisioneering Group, a consumer electronics consulting firm in Seaford, N.Y.
"Exactly the same battery is used in Sony's own Vaio [notebook], but there is no need for a recall because it's not packaged the same way as Apple and Dell's," he said.
"To the best of our knowledge, it's limited to Apple and Dell," said John Challinor, general manager, advertising and corporate communications for Sony of Canada Ltd. "We anticipate no further recalls."
The small number of incidences "are well below what people would consider a reasonable level of quality assurance. But the potential severity of the issues makes it a necessity to have a recall," he said. "We're standing shoulder to shoulder with our customers."
Some authorities, however, remain unsatisfied with Sony's response to the situation. Before the Apple recall was announced, Japan's ministry of trade yesterday demanded that Sony and Dell further investigate the matter, the Associated Press reported. The ministry said the two must submit their findings, and say how they will prevent future problems, by the end of August, or face a fine under Japan's consumer safety laws.
The ministry also instructed other Japanese electronic makers to check the safety of their laptop batteries.
Publicly, Sony and Dell have said the cause of the problem is a flawed manufacturing process whereby metal particles inside the battery cells are able to break through to other parts of the battery causing a short circuit. One of two things happens at this point, Mr. Challinor said. In most cases the battery shuts down, but in a few instances the malfunction has caused a fire.
Apple has set up a webpage for customers to check the serial numbers of the batteries being recalled at http://support.apple.com/batteryprogram.
The company says it will ship replacement batteries free of charge to each affected customers and enclose prepaid shipping labels for returning the recalled batteries to Apple for proper disposal.
Sony won't say what percentage of the costs it is picking up, but said it expects to incur costs of between $172-million (U.S.) to $258-million for both recalls. Analysts say the cost for Dell and Apple could be harder to measure as the companies must handle the negative publicity heading into the important back-to-school selling period.
Dell, the world's No. 1 computer maker, says it was flooded with customer inquiries on the first day of its recall. Customer service reps fielded 100,000 phone calls from people asking if their batteries were affected and the Dell website received more than 28 million hits on the subject.
For Dell, the recall has involved 15 per cent of all battery packs it shipped during a two-year period, the Round Rock, Tex. company said.
Sony also makes lithium-ion batteries that power other devices, including digital cameras and portable music players. Mr. Challinor said there is no risk of these batteries overheating because they are made using a different manufacturing process.
