Sony battery recall approaches 10 million, costs mounting

We've written so much on this Sony battery fiasco that we almost feel like we could just gather our posts and sell 'em together as a PDF for $5 a download. But if we did that, we'd miss out on this latest chapter: the Sony battery recall is now nearing the 10 million mark, and that's straight from the horse's mouth. Yes, Sony announced late Thursday that it would be recalling a total of 9.6 million batteries worldwide, including 90,000 of its own Vaio batteries. Beyond that, the Japanese giant will take a 38 percent hit on its annual profit forecast -- so if you're keeping score, the battery recall has cost the company so far a total of ¥51 billion ($429 million) from July to September. Well, we're in October now, and so it stands to reason that the company is likely to lose out further. And if that wasn't enough, The Associated Press reports: "Sony spokesman Takashi Uehara said the 51 billion yen figure doesn't include 'provisions for possible lawsuits' suggesting costs may actually grow." Nope, definitely not the time to close the book on this story, no sir.

[Sean @ Oct 19th 2006 2:47PM]

Still no word from Sony as to which models are affected. They seem to be making a big show of things (not like they had a choice) but aren't really doing anything.

[kaztm @ Oct 19th 2006 3:08PM]

http://vcl.vaio.sony.co.jp/iforu/hotnews/2006/10/002/index.html

[CharlieX @ Oct 19th 2006 2:52PM]

Remember the first Engadget post about the exploding Dell laptop? Life was so much simpler then for Sony.

[asher @ Oct 19th 2006 2:55PM]

I used to be duped by SONY's name when I was much younger. But when 3 consumer and 1 pro device all failed within months of the warranty expiring I never looked at any of their products again. Sadly I'm stuck when other companies integrate their questionable products into an otherwise excellent device.

If this is the end of them I certainly won't shed a tear.

battery recall+lawsuits+product delays+huge losses+proprietary products+resting on laurels+craptacular devices=end of an era.

[Sean @ Oct 19th 2006 3:24PM]

kaztm, that link is to a Japanese site.
I will save you the trouble of posting the link to the battery recall page on Sony North America's site: https://esupport.sony.com/perl/news-item.pl?news_id=152®ion_id=1

The problem is that the page has said "information coming soon" for over two months. There is no mention of affected models or any indication that Sony is actually taking action on this matter (in North America).

[disciple83 @ Oct 19th 2006 3:08PM]

You take a product like a detonated battery, and combine that with a product like the PSX, (Playstation One), and it seems they broke even in terms of losses and gains. Pile that on top of all the fancy Bravia TVs they tell you they sell, and then all of the advertising on those TVs, not to mention everything they lost on the Vaio machines, which were, for the most part, a failure. Then we have the PS3 being sold minus any HD equipment or finished software products, (they say they can release updates and patches via the Connect system). And those smug bastards have the Audacity to tell the people that a next generation of technology doesn't start until they say it does? How does that work? If by that they mean

"No one can start producing technological advances until we peddle our shitty warez and everyone can learn from our screw-ups and create a better product which we will eventually smuggle and claim as our own, (Dual-Shock, motion controllers, etc.)"

Then sure, I can see where they are capable to say that. Forget Sony.

[Andir3.0 @ Oct 19th 2006 3:27PM]

I see that even Engadget has highly uneducated people posting comments concerning Sony. Thanks for reading into the "Internet hype" just like good little droids. Sure, the battery explosions are a bad deal, but to spout about "copying" and "false claims" you are proving your complete ignorance.

[Dixonij @ Oct 19th 2006 4:59PM]

You have got to be kidding me. "Internet hype"? This is a well document story buddy, not your typical run of the mill Sony bash. This is a full fledged, "Sony f***ed up BIG TIME" story. And with the controllers, they did use other corporations technology with the Dual Shock (see: Immersion lawsuits). Yet again they also seemingly tacked on their motion controls on their SIXAXIS controller after we had already knew the Wii was going to have it.

That being said, I used to love Sony products (I still love my PS2), but recently they haven't made much in the way of new tech that I actually want to buy that is similar to others that has a better quality to it. I hope Sony can pull out of this nosedive for the company and consumer's sake.

[disciple83 @ Oct 19th 2006 3:49PM]

Andir3.0,

"Highly uneducated"? Who are you to say that and not bring up any type of evidence to back up such a claim? Sorry you bought a Wega TV and found a Panasonic at Walmart the next day with a better picture for $500 cheaper. Sorry you bought slim PS2 to find that it acutally doesn't allow for HDD capabilites as promised. Sorry you bought a PSP to find that it doesn't actually have any games because its proprietary format is overpriced and under-delivered. Sorry you own a Vaio that lacks the ability to upgrade or even customize online in a world that desparately needs flexibility to satisfy the different types of user. Sorry you bought a Minidisc player thinking that it would revolutionize portable and removeable media players. Sony makes products that ride off a once great name. But they are by no means movers and shakers, as none of their products have actually innovated anything. The Playstation ripped off the Atari Jaguar and Sega CD. Their 1 claim to fame is the walkman, and the only reason why it took off was because it flooded the market before Panasonic had a chance to get theirs out.

Next time you should think for longer than it took you to open that flytrap you call a mouth, fanboy.

[Veritas II @ Oct 19th 2006 9:59PM]

Sorry you think this is a pissing contest. It doesn't make you important to pick the right company. You are not the console you buy.

Sony has been screwing up, but in all fairness, this article and many of the articles that have preceded it are little but few facts and boatloads of FUD. Half the time, it's insinuated that Sony has done this intentionally, and half the time they're just too stupid to know what they're doing. Make up your minds. Here there be logical fallacies. But really, the fans don't bug me - it's just a sport for them - it's the bloggers that play this junk up to make money that irritate me.

[Giltronic @ Oct 19th 2006 4:00PM]

one a related note-
sony just announced a battery powered ps3
its the future of gaming

giltronic

[Wonderboy @ Oct 19th 2006 4:09PM]

There's only one thing worse than a fanboy and that's a blind hater. And you, Disciple83, are a blind hater.

Sony isn't perfect, and lately they've hit some really rough patches, but I don't know of a single company that doesn't have problems occassionaly. Sony really screwed up here, but they've hit home runs in the past. Sure it may not always be innovation, but if they can take someone else's innovation and make it better, I'm fine with that.

My HDTV is a Sony. I've had it for two years and it still has one of the best pictures I've seen. I also got it for a price lower than many of it's competitors.

Blind haters are just as stupid as fanboys. Judge each product based on the product (including style, price, features, quality), not on how you feel about the company or some of its other products.

-Wonderboy: Owner of Sony/Dell/HP/Apple/Logitech/Belkin/Microsoft/Nikon/RCA/NetGear/numerous other companies' products.

[Adam @ Oct 19th 2006 4:15PM]

I'm so glad Sony is taking a hit. I'm tired of their exploding batteries, root kits in their music cds, BETA players, next gen DVD format arguments, Mini-disks, crappy software, iffy hardware, and anything else I forgot.

Did I forget to mention I hate Sony?

[Adam @ Oct 19th 2006 4:17PM]

Oh yea and the stupid umt or whatever DVDs for their PSP2. Why buy another DVD that will only work on PSP2....stupid. Here is another nail in your coffin Sony.

[Dan @ Oct 19th 2006 4:52PM]

You can kiss the PS4 goodbye.

Perhaps Sony will come crawling to Apple or team up with Sega and/or Atari for a partnership in the NEXT-next generation console war.

(No matter how much you hate Apple, you have to admit it'd be interesting to see how a Sony-Apple console would look/perform and how good it may do or how miserably it may fail.)

anyway... HOORAH FOR NINTENDO AND THE WII!

[Michael @ Oct 19th 2006 5:29PM]

disciple83: you are uninformed, which turns your rant into so much bullsh*t. Sony got popular for their transistor radios and then famous for their TVs, especially when they introduced the Trinitron. The Walkman is one of the great products of all time but they had other hit products before that. Yes, Sony has lost its way, but it wasn't always like that. People used to blindly buy Sony products for a reason - they were high quality items you knew you'd be happy with. Unfortunately Sony let this go to their head and we have the mess that Sony is now.

[Chuck Cooper @ Oct 19th 2006 8:41PM]

Me thinks that the cost of LiPo batteries will tripple in the next year to cover liability.......

[Uninvisible @ Oct 20th 2006 12:15AM]

My parents owned a huge Wega television for about 3 months, but it was only in the house for about a week. The rest of the time, it was on the move getting replacement parts that never ended up working. The Sony portable CD players that I've owned have always broken before the Panasonics - which outlasted the Sonys by years. The first PS2 had more problems than I can list - thank goodness the slim one hasn't screwed up yet. And the PSP was a joke. I had it for a few months and returned it. The games being released were generally horrible [Lumines not included].

Most of the time, I'm able to find a competing brand, like Toshiba or Samsung, that surpasses Sony quality, with more features, for a cheaper price.

[metalangel @ Oct 20th 2006 1:43AM]

I never understood why sony is getting so much heat over their psp. I mean everyone always talks about how their umd format is proprietary and how all their games are rehashes of old games. But lets take a look some of the DS games. I mean, how is the new super mario brothers not a rehash? Also lets take a look at all the GBA super marios. Blatant reselling of old titles. Super mario world? yoshis island? These games are like 3 or 4 console generations old. What else is in my library? classic nes series? How much more obvious a rehash can you get?
And GBA cartridges and those pudgy 'SD' cards that DS games come in arent exactly universal standards either.


Credit wheres its due though. The psp is incredibly expensive, has mediocre battery life, and is big enough to use as a murder weapon. That and the load times are outright painful.

[I, Robot @ Oct 20th 2006 10:11AM]

good... After Lik-Sang... you f*king deserve it, Sony.

[JuanJohn @ Oct 20th 2006 2:38PM]

Karma bitches!

[laptop @ Aug 20th 2008 10:18PM]

We 12 tested each of the flashlights by using the two test batteries. We then labelled each flashlight with the battery brand name and put the different batteries in each marked flashlight.