Digital Journal – In the department of Faulty Batteries, welcome Panasonic to the party.
Japanese electronics company Matsushita, maker of Panasonic products, has announced a recall of 6,000 laptop batteries due to fears they may overheat. The battery recall only affects the CF-W4G notebook PCs sold in Japan.
The problem stems from the battery cover, which could loosen if the notebook is smacked against a hard surface. The lithium-ion battery can then be punctured by a latch, resulting in a fiery crisis that would burn the hardiest of laps.
Matsushita’s announcement comes on the heels of last month’s battery recall from Apple and Dell, which raised the issue about batteries catching fire and destroying new notebooks. Dell asked customers to return 4.1 million faulty batteries and Apple recalled 1.8 million notebooks with Sony-built batteries. Matsushita is tight-lipped about who manufactured their defective batteries, which should come as no surprise to any close watcher of this exploding-battery saga.
If this doesn’t seem like news compared to the multi-million boondoggle from the Apple-Dell recall, think again. As more companies admit to defective laptops, consumer scepticism will reach an all-time high – exploding electronics is always a Christmas gift gone bad.
And now when PC companies breathlessly promote their notebooks as “blazing fast,” we’ll regard that word “blazing” with a healthy dose of irony.
