Sony Silent on Notebooks Using Batteries That May Catch Fire
Sept. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Sony Corp. today refused to name any other computer makers that may be using defective batteries that can cause laptop computers to catch fire.
Lenovo Group Inc. and International Business Machines Corp. yesterday became the latest companies to recall Sony-made batteries used in their notebook computers. Dell Inc., Toshiba Corp. and Apple Computer Inc. have all announced recalls that now total 6.77 million.
Lenovo and IBM recalled the batteries used in its Thinkpad notebook computers after one of them caught fire in a Los Angeles airport terminal as the user was boarding an airplane. There were no reported injuries. When Apple Computer Inc. withdrew 1.8 million batteries in August, Sony released a statement saying it did not anticipate further recalls.
We cannot disclose the names of client PC makers to whom we supply our batteries - that's for those companies to do, said Sony spokesman Takashi Uehara. We will start discussions with those companies as soon as possible.
Fujitsu Ltd., Japan's third-largest personal computer maker, said it will announce today which of its computers contain Sony batteries.
Hewlett-Packard Co. acknowledged using Sony-made cells in its battery packs, but said it does not know how many of its notebooks could be affected. Sony told us that the cells in the batteries provided from the vendor have no problem, Spokesman Satoshi Nakajima said,
Sony said on Aug. 24 said battery replacements for Dell and Apple notebooks will cost the company 20 billion yen to 30 billion yen ($170 million to $257 million). It did not say how much the latest recall would cost.
The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has set no deadline for Sony to report on why the batteries are overheating, said Hideyuki Fujisawa, deputy director of product safety at the ministry.
Source : http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601101&sid=aIkjp2prBNGU&refer=japan
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