Apple Computers and the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) have jointly announced a massive recall of 225,000 lithium ion rechargeable batteries in some of Apple notebook computers due to a fire hazard risk posed by overheating of these batteries.
In exchange, Apple is offering free replacement batteries for certain units of the 12-inch iBook G4, and 12-inch and 15-inch PowerBook G4s, sold between October 2004 and May 2005.
The affected batteries, manufactured by South Korean company LG Chem, have model numbers including A1061, A1078, and A1079 and serial numbers that start with HQ441 through HQ507 or 3X446 through 3X510. So far, six consumer complaints of the batteries overheating have been received by Apple.
However, no fires or injuries have been reported.
Of the 885,000 computers sold worldwide, around 128,000 affected ones were sold in the United States, for a cost between US$ 900 to US$ 2300. Batteries were also sold separately for about US$ 130.
“We do not expect the cost of the recall to be material to Apple, and our supplier will bear those costs,” said Apple spokesperson Natalie Kerris, but refused comment when asked if the recall would hit the sale of portable computers. This is the second recall involving the LG Chem, the first being in August 2004, when 28,000 computers batteries were recalled. Kerris, however, did not say if Apple would terminate its contract with LG Chem.
LG Chem officials were unavailable for comment.
Other major battery recalls include Dell and Compaq in October 2000. While Dell recalled 27,000 batteries, Compaq recalled 55,000 of them.
