Acer, Sony in Talks over Battery Recall

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 woes started in August when Dell recalled 4.1 million laptop computer batteriesdue to a potential fire hazard caused by Sony-made lithium-ion battery cells damaged during production. Other companies soon followed Dell’s lead, including Apple Computer, Lenovo Group and 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 20 billion yen and 30 billion yen (US$169 million and $254 million). The Japanese electronics giant has not updated the figure since then.

Late last week, Sony announced a global battery exchange program due to growing user concerns. More than 6.6 million laptop batteries have been recalled since mid-August.

-Dan Nystedt, IDG News Service (Taipei Bureau)

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