Sony recalls 300,000 of its own batteries; delays and financial woes through 2007

So it looks like Sony's battery fiasco will likely cause delays and high battery prices until June 2007, according to Bloomberg News, which reports that "prices for battery cells have risen about 15 percent in the past three months because of the shortage." If that wasn't bad enough, the news agency also adds that Sony has set aside ¥30 billion ($251 million) "for costs related to the August recall of batteries used in Dell and Apple computers, Sony spokesman Yoshikazu Ochiai reiterated today." However, that figure doesn't take into account the recalls by the laundry list of other companies like Fujitsu, nor Sharp, nor IBM / Lenovo, not to mention a few others. So we'll guesstimate that Sony's true cost is really somewhere around ¥40 billion (over $334 million), and that, of course doesn't include any future companies that may come out of the woodwork to point out faulty batteries they bought from Sony -- like, oh, say, Sony. That's right, Sony has also officially announced a recall of 300,000 batteries in their own devices. Yikes.

[Thanks, Sam]

Read - Sony recall
Read - Sony financials

[Wildside @ Oct 17th 2006 2:48PM]

BOOM!! *pop* goes the Sony batteries..

[Matthew Rasmussen @ Oct 17th 2006 3:24AM]

So, where's a list of the affected Laptops? I didn't see any in those two links, and I didn't see any news of the recall on recall.gov... I'm afraid my laptop may be affected (was manufactured in the approximate time period of these problems)...

At least they seem to be acting to correct the mistake, can't fault them there.

[bazald @ Oct 17th 2006 3:32AM]

https://esupport.sony.com/perl/news-item.pl?news_id=152®ion_id=1

[Scott @ Oct 17th 2006 7:22AM]

Thanks for the link, bazald.

The form on that page has "Phone Number" as a required field, but "Model Number" & "Serial Number" are not. That seems a little backward to me...

[Bob @ Oct 17th 2006 4:22AM]

It is nice to see all the Dell Haters that came out of the woodwork being put in their respective places. That's what you get for jumping the gun on the blame game.

(Take a look at some of the original post with dell's recall and everyone saying that they would never buy a dell because of this, and blah blah blah.)

All I know is that both of my 1 year old batteries were affected and was ecstatic that I received two fresh batteries (a $200+ value) for my Inspiron 6000. I was so impressed that with the way the recall was handled that I will defiantly buy another one when the time comes.

[Mischa @ Oct 17th 2006 3:59PM]

It strikes me that Sony is making gear for the who's who of laptops. Even my beloved Satellite will now need a battery exchange. While this makes Sony look kind of bad- it also impresses me with how widely used they are; maybe their next move should be ditch the Sony brand name and just make stuff for everyone else- as long as it doesn't burst into flame that is.

It goes to show you-- try to buy a Toshiba and you are secretly buying Sony anyway!

[PEZ @ Oct 17th 2006 11:33AM]

Wow, this is getting assy. COuld this be the start of the downfall of SONY? This not only affects them financially of being sued possibley, but also, who is going to want to buy their batteries, laptops or those things from companies who use their technology too?

And what about digital camera and cellphone batteries?

WE ARE SOOOOOOOO SKWEWED!

[Tom @ Oct 17th 2006 9:23AM]

I've been waiting for this, hopefully I'll get a new battery, as the one in my two-year old Vaio is near-useless...

[NeoteriX @ Oct 17th 2006 9:44AM]

FYI, the majority of batteries recalled, are those that have been recently sold. I'd say that two years ago is beyond the timeframe where the defective batteries were produced.

[islandmanagers @ Oct 17th 2006 5:29PM]

Sony is an irresponsible company and I'm happy to see this getting splashed over the news. My T series laptop died when only 10 months old and they didn't honor the warranty. They said I spilled something on it. I didn't - I live in the tropics (my Dell works, though, at year three). My second laptop, a TX bought before the first one died, went back for service twice in the first 6 months - needed a new motherboard. Sony is rushing out crap and now it's come back to haunt them. Good riddence.

[Tom @ Oct 17th 2006 10:29AM]

Aww....

[ryan @ Oct 17th 2006 10:58AM]

i wonder who makes some of these batteries, and if the price is going up that much, if i can buy stock in them for some quick cash...

[Brendon @ Oct 17th 2006 11:12AM]

Really? Sony makes the batteries and is having to replace huge quanities for free. I guess you can gobble up some Sony stock to help lessen the loss of everyone else owning shares in the company.

[Andrew @ Oct 18th 2006 12:07AM]

Sony screwed me on a reaaaaallly pricy stereo 2 years ago and I vowed to never buy another sony product after that.

I hope this is the end of sony.

come to think of it sony have always been jerks, they essentially killed minidisc tech by holding onto it and adding copyright garbage to it, and blu ray will be forgotten when Holographic discs move into the market.

[Earl @ Oct 18th 2006 12:14AM]

If Sony can't even make batteries correctly, then how the hell do people expect them to make a high tech Blu-Ray drive for the PS3.

Sounds like Sony will have a PS3 recall early next year...

[gogogurugo @ Oct 18th 2006 1:01PM]

i have a tx650p and i havent had one damn problem with it. my 4 year old sister even accidentally knocked a cup full of water onto the keyboard and still nothing... i have had it for a year in november, it draws stares from everyone everywhere i go for how small it is and well made it is so dont hate on sony electronics.