Another Sony battery recall
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MARK AUSTIN THOMAS: Sony has lost more power in the battery market. Yesterday IBM and Lenovo decided to yank more than a half a million batteries from ThinkPad notebooks. And Toshiba announced today it’s recalling 830 thousand Sony batteries from its laptops. Marketplace’s Brian Watt reports.
BRIAN WATT: Some 7 million batteries recalled and counting.
Sony has told companies to pull any that cause concern.
IBM’s recall and earlier ones from Apple and Dell were about the risk the cartridges could catch fire. Toshiba has been worried that some batteries simply don’t work.
Sandia National Labs scientist Dan Doughty says battery makers face a trade off, between safety and battery capacity. Right now, capacity is winning.
DAN DOUGHTY:“Market forces reward the companies that have the longest run-time on your iPod or your PC and it might be worthwhile to have a little bit less energy at a higher margin of safety.”
Sony has agreed to pick up most of the cost of the recall.
I’m Brian Watt for Marketplace.
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