No Sony battery recall for Japan's PC
makers
Reuters
August 18, 2006, 09:20 BST
Safety features preventing high-voltage flow in Japan's notebooks
mean those machines are not at risk of overheating, say
manufacturers
Fujitsu and other Japanese computer
makers said on Thursday that no recall of batteries made by Sony
was necessary as their computers were designed to avoid
overheating.
"We have determined that there is no
possibility that any battery trouble could cause smoking or fire in
our notebook computers," said a Fujitsu spokesman. "Most Japanese
makers don't allow high voltage to flow from their AC adapters to
the computer battery, out of safety concerns."
Fujitsu statement follows Dell's announcement that it would recall
4.1 million lithium-ion batteries, saying batteries made by Sony
could smoke and catch fire.
Fujitsu, Toshiba and HP use Sony lithium-ion battery packs but the
batteries used are different from those shipped to Dell, the
companies said.
Sony shares have been under fire because of concerns that the
recall will hurt efforts to revamp its electronics business in the
face of fierce competition from rivals Samsung Electronics and
Sharp.
Sony is still assessing the possible financial impact of the
recall, including replacement, shipping, storage and personnel
costs, a Sony spokesman said.
He added that nothing had been decided on whether Sony would pay
for all the recall costs involved.
US consumer safety officials said on Tuesday that they were
reviewing all Sony-made lithium-ion batteries in laptop computers
for fire hazards. The Japanese electronics company holds a 25
percent global market share in lithium-ion batteries for notebook
computers, after Sanyo Electric.
Sony has said the overheating problem is
believed to be specific to batteries supplied to Dell and
that an incompatibility between the battery cells and
Dell's recharge system was to blame.
Apple and Lenovo Group also use Sony batteries.
"Our management software makes sure no such overheating occurs, and
we are confident that the computers are safe," said a spokesman
from Lenovo Japan.