Friday, 25 August 2006

Apple Follows Dell, Recalls 1.8 million Batteries

Apple has told customers to return 1.8 million lithium-ion batteries used in Mac laptops because they could cause the computers to overheat and ignite. Last week, Dell announced a recall of 4.1 million batteries, the largest recall in the history of the consumer electronics industry. Dell's batteries used cells manufactured by Sony that could potentially short-circuit and cause a fire, even if the laptop is switched off.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission said in a press release on Thursday: "These lithium ion batteries can overheat, posing a fire hazard to consumers."

Apple's 1.8 million recalled batteries represent about 32 per cent of the nearly 5.6 million laptops the company shipped during the quarterly periods covered by the recall, according to IDC. Dell's recall, though larger in number, represents a smaller portion of its sales, given that it sold 22 million laptops during the period covered by its recall, again according to IDC. (The number of batteries recalled does not necessarily mean that 1.8 million laptops were affected, as some users purchase more than one battery for their systems.)

An Apple spokesman said the company does not expect the recall to have a material financial impact on the company, "We discovered that some Sony batteries in previous models of Power PC-based PowerBooks and iBooks do not meet Apple's standards for safety and performance. None of Apple's Intel-based laptops are affected."

Sony will take a financial hit from the combined impact of the Apple and Dell recalls. As with Dell, Sony plans to offer financial support to Apple's recall effort, said the spokesman. The total cost of the Apple and Dell recalls could fall between USD 172 million and USD 258 million, Sony said in a statement.