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Battery Recalls A Blow to Sony's Recovery
Yasser writes to mention the fallout from yet another Sony battery recall. Sony's stock hit a one-month low today on the news that they'd be pulling over a million batteries off the market. The recall is expected to have little impact financially, but has prompted the Japanese government into ordering Sony to look into the battery problem. From that article: "The ministry instructed the two companies to investigate the safety of Dell models Latitude, Inspiron and Precision and report on their findings by the end of August, the ministry said. Earlier this month, problems with battery cells supplied by Sony forced Dell to recall an unprecedented 4.1 million laptop batteries in the United States. "
Really, I'm sorry that your profits - that you earned so hard by putting out piles of junk - now get eaten into by recalling said junk.
Who came up with the idea anyway, that products must not harm the customer? Sheesh, won't somebody think of the profits!
Of course it runs NetBSD. BTC: 1NT7QvbetmANwaMzhpVL6
What about Thinkpad batteries? Are they safe? Although it doesn't say anywhere on the battery that it's a Sony, it *does* say so in software. I have a Thinkpad T43.
Root Kit, PS3 price vs features, Blu Ray delays and cost, Battery recall, pretty much every comment from ken regarding the PS3. You can only go up from here right?
...but, wow, it seems like Sony can't do anything right anymore, and every move they make is scrutinized for its downfalls. I'm not referring only to this Battery Recall. Is this a symptom of slashdot and its heavy skewing? What other sites should I check out to broaden my horizons?
"The recall is expected to have little impact financially"
Then what was the point of the story?
Oh wait, Zonk...
http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/08/24/ 1737245
Warning: Corny karma killing post above.
Whatever else you can say about Sony, their hardware is typically top notch (and almost always crippled by their software). If they're letting quality slide on the manufacturing side then they're in danger of losing their one remaining ace, the perception that "Sony makes good shit".
I'm talking about the average consumer who's unaware of rootkits, sonicstage or ejecting MMORPG users into space.
Sony's problem is obvious - its British Born, US citizen CEO, Howard Stringer
Stringer was head of Sony US prior to becoming the first US born CEO of a major Japanese firm. In Sony US, content was were the profits were, and Stringer obviously thinks this will be true of Sony Worldwide too. He was behind Sony's DRM initiatives and the company certainly appears to be run with the content being king to the detriment of the electronics division.
If I was a shareholder, I'd be calling for his resignation.
There are shills on slashdot. Apparently, I'm one of them.
After having read all of the coverage here on Slashdot, I'm confident Sony will make this up with the overwhelming future success of the PS3.
Legit question, since I've never taken part in a laptop Battery recall of any kind. When you return a recalled laptop battery, how long do you have to wait to get a new battery? Does that mean you now have a non-portable laptop until they provide you with the new battery? Does this mean I would have to go out and by a new / backup battery until I receive the new one? How does that all work? Thanks in advance.
Yes but you would imagine that being he biggest kid on the block would make it so they at least got one of them right.
Last year, Toyota (yes, Toyota) recalled about 2 million vehicles in the USA. (Contrast that number to the 200,000 vehicles recalled by Honda.) Simultaneously Toyota has grown to become the #2 automobile company in the USA, surpassing Ford.
We already know about GM and Ford. Since achieving domination of the global market in the 1970s, these companies produced shoddy products for 15 years. By the time that they corrected course, they had already lost substantial market share.
Now, Sony joins Toyota, Ford, and GM.
side note
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Apparently, Panasonic will now replace Sony as "the consumer electronics giant for the masses". I never could understand why a Sony VCR (in the 1990s) cost $100 more than an identically equipped Panasonic VCR. By the 1990s, Sony had already outsourced production to Southeast Asia, but Panasonic continued to advertise -- actually, brag -- that its VCRs were still designed and built in Japan. I even saw an sticker (on the VCR at Fry's Electronics) proclaiming something like "Still Made with Quality in Japan".
Apple says their battery recall won't cost them any money (I'd assume Dell would be the same) since it's not their products but Sonys. How can Sony say that recalling over 5 million batteries won't really affect them financially? I'm sure they had to dish out some ca$h to both Dell and Sony for dealing with the recall and they'll have to replace those millions of batteries (not to mention getting rid of the old ones...
What I find interesting is that Sony said "This would not be affecting any of the Sony laptops"
Doesnt that strike anyone else as odd? Or perhaps it's just a bluff. Of all people you would think Sony laptops would be hit the hardest however no reports and Sony claims there would not be a recall.
Perhaps they take better care of there laptops than others? Not trolling just curious is all.
The greatest revenge in life is massive success.
Does Dell and Apple pay for this or Sony?
I'm must glad the connection between sony & ericsson looks to be ok LOL. Last couple of SE cell phones I've had work perfectly. Currently using the W810i which is probably the best phone I've ever used!
Did Sony supply Apple with their crappy batteries, too?
strongbad says, "hey, my laptop asplode!"
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
They have it right, they are the first successfully 'Americanized' Japanese corporation.
Please sign petition to restore sanity to our banking system!!!
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Sony is planning to simulate the battery failures using a network of PS3s. It is expected that the exploding battery simulator (Called Final Fantasy XXX) will be the free program bundled with the PS3. Coupons for actual games are expected to be released within 6 months of the PS3 launch.
Does anyone know how it happened that Dell and Apple are having problems with Sony's batteries and yet we have yet to hear anything about Vaio batteries being recalled? Is Sony hiding something? Or are they just taking their time? Or are they just that lucky?
The biggest customers of Sony cell battery is of course the maker of Vaio, Sony Computer and mobile phone maker, Sony Ericsson.
Who's next? S.....
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Best Freeware: http://goodfreeware.blogspot.com/
Really, I'm sorry that your profits - that you earned so hard by putting out piles of junk - now get eaten into by recalling said junk.
It all started to go downhill after Akio Morita died. The way I saw it his influence kept Sony's focus on high quality, innovative products. After his passing Sony became more interested in profitability over quality. The stories of Sony products not being up to snuff are no legion. Too bad. They had one of the best names, because of the reputation and now they're wrecking it over profits and rushing things to market before adequate testing.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
I mean, WTF, once a month lows happen once a month!
Don't let Sony story fool you, the problem is with Lithium Ion architecture which has always been risky.
o ncerns
There is no way out too, people got used to charging their batteries whenever comes to their minds (no memory effect) , low weight opposed to NiCad batteries. Also lets face the fact that there are complete irresponsible or non educated people against nature who would throw out their chargeable batteries without giving them to service for safe disposal. There is a huge difference between throwing out a Cadmium thing or a Lithium thing to nature. Both should not be done but there is real life issue.
Read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium_ion#Safety_c
Imitation/low quality batteries has become problem when Lithium Batteries became popular and affordable remember? Wonder why? A low quality, imitation NiCad battery would only have "number of charges" or "more than normal memory effect" problem only. A low quality Li-Ion battery would additionally EXPLODE on consumers face since it is missing very important electronic,chip which shuts down battery if it is overheated.
Read Nokia etc. warnings on imitated batteries.
Thanks for t3h 1337 r00tk1+, n00bZ
(%i1) factor(777353);
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Well, i personally havn't had any problems with the sony battery in my laptdjsaDASDJAShd NO CARRIER
Everything would go a lot better if these companies just used regular batteries (AAA, AA, C, D, etc) instead of these strange proprietary non-standard hard-to-replace batteries.
Where were you when the voynix came?
Its been suggested that Dell and Sony had know about the battery problem for up to 10 months. Imagine if this had happened on a plane. This could've hurt them beyond their financial outcome.
If Sony did a recall for exploding PS3's before they shipped them out.
Lenovo claims that their batteries are safe. They are, however, made by Sony.
"If Sony did a recall for exploding PS3's before they shipped them out"
No need for a recall. Let the marketing department handle this with a press release about the added realism in shoot-and-explode military games due to Sony's new sensory-feedback controller. That's a lot cheaper.
Where were you when the voynix came?
Between 4 million Dell batteries and 1.8 million Apple batteries recalled, there have been what, 10 laptop fires total? The odds that the battery will burst into flames in the next week is lower than the odds that lightning will strike his iBook and fry it in the same time period...
If Sony keeps stepping on their dicks with golf shoes, pretty soon they won't be able to screw their customers anymore.
Professional Politicians are not the solution, they ARE the problem.
I recall a blow I once delt to Sony's recovery as well.
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What's with all these battery recalls all of a sudden? It's 2006 and we STILL have trouble with lithium-ion technology?
Seriously. Who the hell looks at a large corporate stock in a one month timeframe?? You, sirs, are not stock analysts.
"Dude do you know how many Alkaline batteries it would take to supply the power found in a Lithium Ion battery? Not only that but do you have the $10-$20 bucks a day to keep buying these batteries?"
They've had rechargable Lithium Ion AA batteries for a few years now.
Where were you when the voynix came?
Sony also made the recalled Mac batteries...
4 1117245005 081604956
e xchange/.
http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=2006082
http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=2006082
Affected ranges of serial number prefixes are as follows:
12-inch iBook G4, battery model: A1061
ZZ338 through ZZ427
3K429 through 3K611
6C510 through 6C626
12-inch PowerBook G4, battery model: A1079
ZZ411 through ZZ427
3K428 through 3K611
15-inch PowerBook G4, battery models: A1078 and A1148
3K425 through 3K601
6N530 through 6N551
6N601
To see if your PowerBook or iBook is affected, visit
https://support.apple.com/ibook_powerbook/battery
46. The Hobo smiles, his eyes glaze over, and he burps. "Beware the man who has lived longer than the Wasteland."
Are the batteries completely to blame? What about the cooling design? Apple released a firmware update sometime back that increased fan usage that helped overheating problems on some of their systems. Couldn't this all actually go down as a system integration problem - to at least share the responsibility of Dell and Apple with Sony?
If there is anything to this approach on the problem, I find it very interesting how company product politics and consumer ignorance may be playing into this. Have Dell and Apple entered any Sony-dominated markets lately?
Also, does anyone know if a cooler CPU uses less electricity to compensate for the extra fan usage draw? I imagine not, since it's still probably producing the same inefficiency (electricity->heat), but that it's just being pulled away faster...
Right now, Sony is the only thorn in the side of Microsoft's plans to take a monopoly hold of the games console market. I'm not a fan of sony or its DRM plans, but the last thing anyone who cares about the IT industry needs right now is for Sony to go down.
That said... a megacorp has a "one month low"? What kind of news is that? Sounds like someone trying to make a story where there isn't one.
This whole problem was revealed in the movie Terminator 3 - Rise Of The Machines. Twice Arnold's Sony Battery Packs were used as explosives.
Namaste
Remember last year how we all laughed and teased the guy whose private parts were burned because he did not have any padding between his lap and his laptop? Did we by chance laugh when we should have been listening and asking questions? Sometimes frivolous complaints are not so frivolous.
Sony stock holders should sell now before that abortion of a console, the PS3, launches and fails.
He did say relative failure.
And how exactly did they take 40% of the market share? The DS has outsold the PSP, and don't forget that the Game Boy Advance is still an active market, too.
I think it's a bit less than the 40% figure you pulled out of thin air.
Don't forget Nintendo sold the DS and is now selling the DS Lite...do you think Sony could effectively pull off a PSP Lite?
Finally, go take a look at your neighborhood video game trade-in store. Compare their stock of used portables. I think there's a pattern, but it could just be me.
:(){
Safety is not a matter of "It is not important because it happened to someone far away." The potential loss from lawsuits is far greater than the cost of a battery recall, especially since there is a picture or video of a laptop burning.
>My Jaguar was a beautiful car, but had the most bizarre set of problems I've ever heard of (a door and sunroof that opened only when they were in the right mood, occasionally working headlights, etc.)
I don't know much about the newer models, but this sort of thing is considered normal behavior for British cars of the 50s,60s, and 70s. The proper mental attitude to take is to look on it a charming quirkiness when your headlamps go out at night in a driving rainstorm. Of course, you are already used to the fact that the wipers work beautifully until it starts raining, when they quit. This attitude keeps you from shooting holes in the engine block and setting the thing on fire.
It used to be an article of faith among my fellow Triumph, MG, Austin-Healy and Jaguar drivrers that Lucas electrical systems were designed by Satan. Anything electrical worked on a purely random schedule, perhaps, as you suspect, influenced by the moon. On the bright side, major FUBAR situations could often be remedied by a nice wash and wax or rotating the tires.
I always thought that the British engineers' idea was that their cars were supposed to be fun, but unpredictable. I you wanted dependable transportation, you were supposed to take the train.
Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
Zonked.
...be doin' the ol' seppuka belly-slash in the near future?
Cloned foods give the statement "We had that last week!" a whole new meaning.
After putting a few million rootkits on their CDs, it's difficult to cry too much for Sony.
see you in hell
(m10 watches sony be blown away...)
Baaaaaaaaaaaaaa.
You could have gotten a much better digital camera from any other manufacturer. I hope you enjoy the next Sony driver update, as it could hold a Rootkit Fucktard As a matter of fact, I hope it causes yopu fucking computer to blow up while you're around it so it will take another fucktarded sheeple out of the gene pool.
Honestly I'm shocked that Sony hasn't taken a larger hit. I think the bloggers that really covered this story chose to focus on Dell for whatever reason, and so they took the bulk of the PR pain. Now that Apple is having issues too we're seeing Sony as being easier to blame. I almost feel bad for Dell (almost). I think they've taken more than their share of the blame. Check out this analysis of this issue: "By delaying any announcement, Dell harmed its position on multiple fronts. It allowed the Consumer Product Safety Commission to define the story and cloak itself in the garb of public protector. Nor was the agency shy about describing the recall as the "largest computer-related recall in history." The magnitude of the disaster became an integral part of the story reported in the first few paragraphs of both the Austin American-Statesman and Wall Street Journal Online on August 15th. Dell thus fell victim to the "Law of ST." Words like "largest" or "first" or "worst" become the story itself." from this article