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More than 7 million Sony batteries have now been recalled since the middle of August when Dell made its big 4.1 million battery recall announcement, a figure which has risen to 4.2 million over the weekend interestingly enough. Toshiba has now joined the feeding frenzy by recalling 830,000 laptop batteries; Fujitsu is also doing the recall thing but refuse to comment on numbers. This following the earlier announcement from IBM/Lenovo that it was recalling over half a million Sony batteries, and let’s not forget that Apple has been busy doing the same.

So where does this leave Sony?

The perhaps predictable answer is on the slide. Certainly, that’s what has happened to the Sony share price, which has dropped by 8.6% since the Dell recall, in contrast to the Nikkei itself having gained 1.7% in the same period. Apart from the adverse impact upon the brand image because of the admittedly rare problem of short circuits within the batteries concerned, there is also the raw financial cost of bearing the brunt of funding all the recalls. From what I can gather, it is Sony that will be paying for these.

The true cost of recalling 7 million batteries is not being revealed, although Sony has previously stated that the Apple and Dell recalls would cost anywhere between $175 to $250 million. Or put another way, anything up to 25% of the entire net profit for the current Sony business year. However, analysts are predicting the long-term effect will be negligible for Sony, which will most likely remain a major player in the battery supply market. Indeed, nobody has stated that they are to stop using Sony batteries as a result of the recalls…

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Good points from and a useful counterpoint from . The headline reaction — big recalls, visible costs and a bruised brand — was real, but the technical root and the policy response matter more for what happened next. Sony publicly acknowledged a manufacturing contamination (microscopic metal particles that can create internal short circuits in lithium‑ion cells) and moved to a coordinated global replacement program with affected OEMs; that sequence explains why manufacturers and regulators moved fast. (sony.com)

The failure mode was an internal short in a cell that, in very rare cases, can trigger overheating (thermal runaway). Sony and investigators traced the problem back to cell‑level contamination and introduced extra production safeguards and screening after the incidents. That’s why the fixes focused on both replacing suspect packs and tightening cell manufacturing and inspection processes. (arstechnica.com)

Practical takeaway for users and IT managers at the time (and useful if you ever encounter a recall): stop using a suspected pack immediately unless the maker’s guidance says otherwise, run the system on mains power, and follow the vendor’s replacement program so returned cells are handled and disposed of safely. Regulatory agencies coordinated outreach and OEM portals made model‑by‑model checks available. Those are the steps that limit injury and further liability. (recalls.justia.com)

For anyone thinking investment or supplier strategy: short‑term market moves can present opportunities, but factor in replacement logistics, regulatory scrutiny and the cost of restoring confidence. From a supply‑chain perspective the obvious remedies are tighter incoming inspection, traceability to cell lots, and contingency sourcing; those are the measures that actually reduce repeat risk rather than hoping the issue disappears. ()

Member Avatar for tgreer

Time to buy some Sony stock. Seriously, this is such a minor blip for the consumer electronics giant, that it's more of a an opportunity for investors than anything else.

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