Get ready for a Lenovo recall?

Stan Beer
Tuesday, 26 September 2006 19:39

Opinion and Analysis

Well it's official. The same battery at the center of the massive Apple and Dell notebook recalls is responsible for the now infamous Lenovo Thinkpad firecracker incident at LA International Airport.

• Announcements

Lenovo has confirmed that the Thinkpad battery that burst into flames was the same model Sony Lithium Ion battery that forced two of the world's biggest notebook manufacturers to recall 6 million notebook computers.

The conclusion is inescapable. Lenovo insists that public safety is its first priority. Apple and Dell also felt the same way and recalled their products. Thus, Lenovo can ill afford not to do the same, given that many of its Thinkpad T43 notebooks are equipped with exactly the same batteries and the company has already suffered a serious incident.

In fact, Lenovo is lucky. If the incident had occurred on a plane, the company could have been in deep trouble, given that it must have known that its Thinkpad T43 notebooks were using the Sony batteries in question.

For Sony, the expensive and highly embarrassing nightmare concerning its notebook batteries now appears to be far from over.

For Lenovo, the questions are how many Thinkpads are there in the marketplace using the suspect Sony batteries and when do they plan to start a recall program in the interests of public safety.

For us consumers, the question is how many other brands of notebook computers use this particular model of battery.