Apple latest victim of battery recall

Stan Beer
Friday, 25 August 2006 05:26

Your IT - Home IT

Last year it was HP, a couple of weeks ago it was Dell, now Apple Computer has become the latest high profile manufacturer of notebooks to issue a global scale recall of 1.8 million batteries due to overheating problems.

The Apple recall had been widely predicted since the massive 4.1 million battery recall issued by Dell earlier this month as the Apple notebooks use the same battery lithium-ion units made by Sony.

Notebooks affected by the recall include pre-Intel based iBook G4 and PowerBook G4 computers sold from October 2003 through to August 2006. In a statement concerning the batteries on its website Apple said: "Apple has determined that certain lithium-ion batteries containing cells manufactured by Sony Corporation of Japan pose a safety risk that may result in overheating under rare circumstances."

Apple has also issued a recall for Intel-based MacBook Pro batteries sold from from February 2006 through May 2006. However, it has differentiated this recall by stating that the batteries were being recalled for performance reasons and do not pose a safety risk.

The Dell and Apple recalls, which are two of the largest product recalls in US corporate history, throws the spotlight on the battery manufacturer Sony, whose batteries are widely used by notebook manufacturers world wide. Sony has stated that it does not expect further recalls but there is growing concern in the marketplace.

There have been two incidents reported in Japan where notebooks have caught fire, the most spectacular which was broadcast around the web being at a show in Osaka. However, most incidents of overheating reported so far have been relatively minor, according to both Dell and Apple.