Burning Batteries: Dell & Apple do right, but what about Sony.

I have not always had the kindest words for Dell and Apple Computer companies, but in the case of the serious issue of laptop batteries bursting into flames, the two companies have behaved in first-rate fashion.  They responded to customer complaints. They listened and responded.  They explained the source of the problem--Sony in both cases. They warned customers. They are exchanging potentially dangerous batteries for safer ones.

Sony, however has me feeling a bit dubiously. As far as I can tell, they have not issues a press release on the subject.  Their is an inconsistency to the state,ments they have issued through Dell and Apple.  As CNET reports, Rick Clancy, 'an official company spokesperson' stated in Dell's press releases that Dell had the highest incidents that Sony knew about and that Sony anticipated no more problems.  There were six incidents and the first time the two companies discussed the issue was way back in October 2005.

A week later, Apple reported nine incidents had occurred. This time Clancy did not talk about the issue, but once again stated that Sony anticipated no other computer maker anticipates a recall.

We shall see. For me, I cannot help suspect that Sony knew there was a problem and that more incidents had occurred over at Apple when it made its comments. Therefore, i wonder what surprises will come out next week.

I also wonder just what we will learn about how Sony's quality control system went so amiss for a specific period, we are told, to ship 15 exploding batteries and the potential for others among about six million laptop owners. They also have not made clear what they have done to ensure this will not happen again.

In fact, what little I know comes from an apparently candid interview by the US Computer Product Safety Commission, which made the determination of the danger, its source and the recommendation of the two recalls. Two days after Clancy was saying there were no additional recalls anticipated, a commission spokesperson was on NPR hinting strongly that more could be expected.

Even if Clancy was intentionally lying then, I do hope he was telling the truth the second time with Apple. Laptop batteries that go boom on the lap--or on an airplane are anything but funny, and the world is scary enough without further incidents such as these.

Comments

[Katie Paine]

I totally agree, I find it very odd that Dell and Apple were out in front of the recall, but Sony, who made the batteries, is in the shadows. I used to be a big Sony fan, had a Vaio for years, but now as I shop for a new laptop, their recent actions or lack there of, have dropped them off the consideration list.

[hanako]

Good point!

[jim Forbes]

Shel,
"sploding" Lithium Ion batteries are very serious. The most impressive demonstration i've ever seen of a catastytrophic battery failure was filmed by IBM at their R&D cenetr in Japan. Like you, i was dismayed by the reports that Sony was the power pack supplie since Sony and IBM were both at the forefront of battery research in the nineties. But then, SOny has slipped a long way sincce then and I too am annoyed at Sony's stance on the battery issues.
As I noted in my blog last week, the day a notebook battery fails catastrophically in an airplane cabin will the last day notbooks are allowed in carry-on luggage or allowed to be used in-flight. In short, a catastrophic power supply failure would cripple notebook sales.The most common failure point for Li-ion tech is the charging circuit. It's for his reason that I never ever buy a replacement battery in a bargain bin at any electronics outlet.
You're right Dell and Apple have handled this well but I still wouldn't want to be either on their PR or legal staffs right now.
I honestly believe that one or both of Dell's notebook brands could be fatally hurt by the company's battery problems.

Sincerely,
Jim Forbes

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[Steve]

Katie - I would argue the while Sony certainly was late, neither Dell nor Apple were "out in front". They knew of this problem well before issuing a recall. In fact, they issued a preliminary recall months ago for a very small number of laptops.

Had they taken this more seriously then they might have prevented the PR nightmare!

"Disclosing Bad News All At Once shortens the life of a negative story and contains it by preempting substantive links to other stories." - http://www.levick.com/resources/topics/articles/dell_battery_crisis.php

(Should have done the above)

[FRANK]

http://redcouch.typepad.com/weblog/2006/08/burning_batteri.html