Analyst house Info-Tech Research Group said the recalls are a wake-up call for the industry, which may be overlooking the fundamental cause of overheating laptops. Beyond the recalls, Apple and Dell need to do a root cause analysis of the notebooks to ensure they are solving the problems at the source, said the researchers.
Computer designs that limit heat dissipation, as well as the apparent faulty performance of Sony’s lithium ion batteries, need to be thoroughly investigated, said Carmi Levy, an Info-Tech senior analyst, in a statement.
Both Apple’s and Dell’s recent recalls relate to lithium-ion batteries made by Sony Energy Devices Corp of Japan. The trade ministry of Japan yesterday ordered Sony and Dell to investigate the reasons why some of the batteries were overheating. The companies must report their findings to the ministry by the end of August or face fines for flaunting the country’s consumer safety laws.
Other lithium-ion batteries have had similar problems in the past, and have plagued other computer makers including Hewlett-Packard Co.
Indeed, lithium-ion technology likely won’t be replaced as the dominant mobile battery within the next decade or so. This means notebooks makers instead would require new computer and component designs to ensure their machines consume less power and stay cooler longer.
Sony said the problems with its recalled batteries was that, on rare occasions, microscopic metal particles in the battery cells came into contact with other parts of the cell, leading to a short circuit. Typically, a battery pack will power off when a cell short circuit occurs. But under certain rare conditions, which Sony did not describe, an internal short circuit leads to overheating and potentially flames, said the company.
The potential for this to occur can be affected by variations in the system configurations found in different notebook computers, said Sony, in a statement.
The company said it had introduced a number of additional safeguards to address the problem. We believe the issue has been addressed to the satisfaction of our customers, it said. Sony also said it anticipates no further recalls of battery packs using these particular battery cells.
The overall cost to Sony of both PC makers’ battery recalls would be between 20bn yen and 30bn yen, or about $171.6m to $257.5m.
Apple yesterday recalled 1.1 million batteries used in Mac iBook and PowerBook notebooks sold in the US from October 2003 through this month. An additional 700,000 notebooks sold overseas also are affected. Apple notebooks powered by Intel Corp processors were not affected, said the company.
So far, there have been nine incidents of batteries overheating in Apple notebooks, and at least two people have reported minor burns and minor property damage as a result, said the US Consumer Product Safety Commission. There have been no reports of serious injuries.
The recall comes a week after Dell recalled 4.1 million faulty notebook batteries also made by Sony. It was the largest electronics recall in the history of the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Since December, there have been about half a dozen reports of Dell notebooks overheating or catching on fire.
Australia’s major airline Qantas has put restrictions on the use of Dell notebooks on board its flights as a precaution, according to The Sydney Morning Herald. Qantas fliers could only use affected Dell notebooks using aircraft power supply available in some first and business class cabins.
However, some Australian airports reportedly removed batteries from all Dell computers, even those not affected, and taped up the batteries’ contact points. It was not yet known for how long the airline’s restrictions would be enforced.
Apple’s recalled battery model numbers include A1061, A1079, A1078 and A1148. Dell’s recall affects about 14% of its Lattitude, Inspiron, XPS and Precision notebooks sold from April 2004 to mid-July this year.
