Sony stock hits 1-mth low on battery recall
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Shares of Sony Corp. fell as much as 3  percent to a one-month low on Friday after Apple Computer Inc.  said it would recall 1.8 million PC batteries, the second major  recall involving Sony-made battery cells in 10 days.
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IBM Corp. is recalling 526,000 laptop batteries worldwide made by Sony Corp., the latest in a series of problems with Sony batteries, the Consumer Product Safety Commission said Thursday.
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Japanese stocks edged lower by midsession  on Friday as selective stocks bounced back on bargain hunting,  cushioning selling of tech stocks triggered when Sony Corp. cut  its operating profit estimate.
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WASHINGTON -- Some 526,000 batteries used in ThinkPad notebook computers worldwide are being recalled in the latest problem with batteries made by Sony Corp., the Consumer Product Safety Commission said Thursday.
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The Nikkei lost 1 percent on Thursday as  stocks such as Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. fell after  disappointing earnings at U.S. firms, while Sony Corp. issued a  profit warning after the close.
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The Japanese electronics maker Toshiba Corp. said Friday that it is recalling 830,000 batteries made by Sony for its laptop computers while personal computer maker Dell Inc. expanded its recall of Sony battery packs by 100,000. The batteries can short-circuit and have been blamed for causing some computers to catch fire.
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Sony Corp.  shares fell to a 2 Â½ month low on Monday after Toshiba Corp.  and Fujitsu Ltd.  joined the list of PC makers recalling Sony-made batteries, increasing potential damage to its earnings.
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(InfoWorld) - Acer, the world's fourth-largest PC vendor, is in talks with Sony over joining its voluntary laptop PC battery recall, but said Acer users haven't reported any problems so far. "Previously, we believed there were no problems with our batteries, but now we're in discussions with Sony, just to make sure," said Stella Chou, an Acer representative in Taipei. Acer has not received any complaints from users over laptops overheating or catching fire, she said. Sony's battery woesÂ started in August whenÂ Dell recalled 4.1 millionÂ laptop computer batteries due to a potential fire hazard caused by Sony-made lithium-ion battery cells damaged during production. Other companies soon followed Dell's lead, includingÂ Apple Computer,Â Lenovo Group, andÂ Toshiba. Sony has already agreed to pay at least some of the cost of the battery recalls, telling investors in August that the Dell and Apple recalls could cost it between Â¥20 billion and Â¥30 billion ($169 million and $254 million). The Japanese electronics giant has not updated the figure since then. Late last week,Â Sony announcedÂ a global battery exchange program due to growing user concerns. Over 6.6 million laptop batteries have been recalled since mid-August.
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(InfoWorld) - Following a series of massive notebook PC battery recalls in August, a group of PC vendors met last week to seek safer lithium ion cells, resolving to draft an improved standard for battery manufacturing and quality control by the second quarter of 2007. About 20 representatives, including people from Dell Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co., Lenovo Group Ltd. and Polycom Inc. met Sept. 13 in San Jose, California, said Kimberly Sterling, a spokeswoman for IPC, an electronics industry group whose full name is the Association Connecting Electronics Industries. Sterling said some additional companies participated, but declined to name them or indicate how many there were. The companies are trying to allay consumer fears afterÂ a handful of batteries in notebook PCs overheated, some bursting into flames and injuring their users. However, their efforts may be hindered by the absence of Sony Electronics Inc. and possibly Apple Computer Inc. as well, since those companies may not abide by the standard without having an opportunity to help draft it. Sony wouldn't commit to following the IPC advice until it collects further information, said Sony spokesman John Dolak. Sony skipped the meeting because it was never invited, Dolak said. Instead, the company has representatives on similar boards; Sony executive Doug Smith is chairman of the Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corp., a trade and lobbying group sponsored by battery manufacturers. Apple did not return calls about the meeting, which was run by committee chairman John Grosso, an executive at Dell. In August,Â Dell recalled 4.1 million notebook PC batteries, and Apple recalled 1.8 million notebook batteries.Â Sony made all the faulty batteries and blamed the problem on short circuits caused by a manufacturing flaw that left microscopic shards of metal floating in the lithium ion cell. Polycom, of Pleasanton, California, attended the meeting because it had recalled 27,700 of its wireless conference phones in February 2006. It is unclear whether Sony manufactured those batteries, too. Sony announced another defect in its batteries on Monday, when Toshiba Corp. offered to exchange 340,000 notebook batteries for fear they could suddenly lose power, shutting down the computer without saving users' work. Another hurdle for the nascent IPC standard is criticism from some experts that well-designed laptops shouldn't catch fire even if they do have faulty batteries. If PC vendors had used standard safety precautions in their notebooks, the defective batteries would have merely shut down, not overheated, said Donald Sadoway, a chemistry professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "The technology came out in the mid-90s; we know how to build a safe lithium ion battery," he said. Engineers typically avoid overheating in lithium ion batteries with safety features such as microcircuitry that monitors the charging process, an additive that makes the electrolyte less flammable or a porous polypropylene spacer that melts at high temperatures, automatically shutting down the battery's chemical reaction. Sadoway pointed out that it is PC manufacturers who typically specify requirements to battery suppliers. "So the question in my mind is 'Why are people not building batteries with these safety precautions?' Something is wrong here, and I believe it has to do with human behavior, not electrochemistry," Sadoway said. "In our attempts to bring portable power to the masses, we may have gotten too aggressive in our cost cutting. If you want something that's quickly recharged, delivers high bursts of power on demand, and is cheap cheap cheap, I would say that's over-specified." Sony agreed that variations in PC and battery design can make a difference in how they handle short circuits. After manufacturing, Sony's cells are configured into battery packs by either Sony itself or by third-party contractors such as Simplo Technology of Taiwan. Depending on the contractor, the batteries can use a variety of safety mechanisms, said Sony spokesman Rick Clancy. "Within battery packs, there are different specifications related to charging and voltage, and regulators that monitor temperature to indicate overheating and shut it down," Clancy said. "But we've pretty much agreed with our customers not to point fingers at each other, so I'm not going to get into that." PC designers also make decisions that can affect overheating, such as specifying batteries with a range of 6 to 9 cells, and placing them in various proximity to heat sources such as the processor and charger, he said. Another aspect of computer design that could aggravate faulty batteries is pulse charging, a method of recharging batteries very quickly when they're plugged into a wall outlet, said industry analyst Rob Enderle. Dell disputed that point, saying they are not aware of any connection between pulse charging and overheated batteries, although they do use the technology, according to Dell's chief technology officer, Kevin Kettler. Â
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Sony Corp. (6758.T) shares fell as much  as 2.6 percent on Thursday, hit by another delay in the launch  of its PlayStation 3 game console, but outperformed sector  peers and the broader market by the end of the day as investors  weigh the likely impact of the delay.
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PC Magazine - Hitachi Ltd. said on Friday it will recall 16,000 batteries made by Sony Corp. for laptop computers, joining a growing list of PC makers recalling Sony batteries.
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Hewlett-Packard is making a high-stakes bet that it won't get burned by a bad battery. Dell, Apple, Lenovo, Toshiba and Fujitsu are recalling 7.7 million laptop batteries made by Sony. The batteries can, in rare instances, overheat and catch fire. HP uses Sony battery parts, too, but it is not recalling them. The company believes it is safe because it reviewed and rejected Sony battery parts for nearly a year before buying any, spokesman Mike Hockey says.
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Toshiba is recalling 340,000 laptop batteries worldwide made by Sony Corp., the latest in a series of problems for the company.
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Consumers are being asked to return 526,000 laptop batteries made by Sony Corp. because they could catch fire, the latest in a record-setting recall involving nearly 7 million computers.
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Curse of the fire-breathing Sonys Lenovo and IBM today issued a recall on notebook batteries sold with various ThinkPad models between February 2005 and September 2006.â¦
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Toshiba is recalling worldwide 340,000 batteries made by Sony Corp. for its laptops, the latest in a series of embarrassing battery problems for Sony.
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Sony Corp.'s battery problems deepened on   Friday after Toshiba Corp. joined the list of PC makers   recalling its batteries including Dell Inc., Apple Computer   Inc. and Lenovo.