There is something seriously wrong here. Within the past 2 weeks, HP, Dell, and Apple are all recalling their laptop computer batteries dating back to 2003 (and maybe beyond). There are millions of laptop computers involved and millions of batteries will need to be replaced by the manufacturer of the computers.

The batteries affected all have a chance of exploding they heat up during the course of normal use, and not only if somebody plays around with them. We’ve talking about laptops exploding on your lap while you’re typing at that next revenue report.

This isn’t a complete coincidence. All three companies’ affected batteries are made by the same company, and all signs point to Sony. The batteries are made in Japan too, not in China as some might expect such defective products to originate from. Dell is expecting to have to spend $200 million US to recall the batteries, with Sony shouldering most of the cost.

I use one of the affected laptops: an Apple 12 inch Powerbook. However, I did a check on the Apple web site, and my battery isn’t said to be dangerous, even though the model of the laptop is. Furthermore, other web sites are claiming different, and that my laptop is indeed under danger. Hopefully they can clear out this mess.

The good news is, maybe we can be lucky and a kid has his laptop battery explode while he’s browsing MySpace, thus hampering his ability to pass on his genes for future generations.

Another funny thing is that Sony hasn’t recalled any of their own batteries for their own brand of laptops (Vaio), which leads me to believe that their laptops don’t have the same problems as Dell, HP, or Apple’s. I’m going to paraphrase Sun Tzu’s The Art of War here:

Sell defective goods to your enemies, but keep the good shit for yourself.

This ClashBang.com article was written by Chris Chu. Tired of privately venting his frustration in vain, Chris decided to share his discontent with the rest of the world.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 24th, 2006 at 2:15 pm and is filed under . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.