Sony announced a new recall of notebook batteries. According
to the Japanese company, the PC makers affected by this recall are Hewlett-Packard,
Toshiba, Dell, Acer and Lenovo.
Apparently there are at least 100,000 computer battery packs
which could represent a fire hazard. From these 35,000 Sony batteries were sold
in the United States
and 65,000 batteries worldwide.
A Sony spokeswoman said that so far there were 40 incidents
in which the faulty batteries were implied, including four cases where users
suffered minor burns, and 21 cases of minor damage from fires and overheating.
Sony announcement follows after earlier this week, Sony Corp
saw its net profit plunge 71.8 per cent in the second quarter as demand for
consumer electronics slowed and the yen rose in value against other major
currencies.
The Japanese electronics company reported a net profit of
20.8 billion yen (219.84 million dollars) in the July-September quarter,
compared to 73.7 billion yen a year before.
Operating profit also tumbled 90.1 per cent to 11 billion
from 111.6 billion yen during the second quarter a year earlier, and sales
dipped 0.5 per cent to 2.07 trillion yen from 2.08 trillion yen.
Sony last week announced a downward revision of its full
year earnings forecast with an expected net profit of 150 billion yen,
operating profits of 200 billion yen and sales of 9.2 trillion yen
However, the Japanese company said the recall is expected to
have limited impact on its earnings.
Sony is not at its first “overheating” experience. In 2006,
the company reported incidents of overheating laptop batteries. Dell, Apple,
Toshiba and Lenovo recalled over 9 million batteries manufactured by Sony,
after receiving customer complaints. In July and August 2007, Toshiba was
forced to recall another 11,000 notebooks powered by Sony batteries.
In August 2007, Sony was forced to repeat the experience
with the DSC-T5 digital cameras (they had to recall 350,000 units and replace
them with new ones for free). A
Last month Sony issued a recall of approximately 73,000 VAIO
TZ-series notebooks in the United
States and approximately 440,000 units
worldwide.
