Japan's Sony, scrambling to contain the fallout from widening defective battery problems, launched a global replacement programme after China's Lenovo became the latest computer maker to issue a recall.
Sony will offer to replace certain battery packs for notebook computers in response to concerns over recent overheating incidents, the Japanese electronics giant said in the US last night.
'This is a programme to ease the worries of computer makers and consumers,' said Sony spokesman Takashi Uehara in Tokyo. 'This is not a compulsory recall,' he said, adding it was not yet clear how many laptop computer batteries might be returned.
The programme could develop into the largest-ever recall of computer batteries by any company, according to Japanese media. Analysts said it was hard to quantify the potential magnitude and cost of the problem but believed it so far looked manageable for Sony, which has recently rebounded under a major restructuring plan.
In the latest recall China's Lenovo, which took over IBM's ThinkPad personal computer unit last year, said yesterday that about 526,000 lithium-ion batteries made by Sony were susceptible to overheating and would be replaced free of charge.
The recall was announced with the US Consumer Product Safety Commission two weeks after a laptop overheated and caught fire as its owner was about to take a flight from Los Angeles International airport.
Sony last month announced it would incur costs of up to $257m for recalls of millions of its batteries by US computer makers Apple Computer and Dell.
Sony had insisted that the problems would spread no further than Dell and Apple but earlier this month Japan's Toshiba also announced a recall of 340,000 laptop computers with batteries made by Sony Sony said it would consult computer makers that use its batteries to see which companies decide to participate in the replacement programme.
The massive battery recall has hit Sony just as a painful restructuring drive had appeared to be paying off after a weak patch at the iconic Japanese company that created the Walkman.
There is also concern about prospects for two of the group's pivotal new products - the PlayStation 3 (PS3) game console and the Blu-ray high-definition DVD player.
Sony was forced to delay the global launch of the PS3 by six months until this November. Earlier this month it pushed back the rollout in Europe, Russia, the Middle East, Africa and Australasia again, until March, because of technical problems with the Blu-ray player, which has been built into the PS3.
Both the PS3 and the Blu-ray DVD player are considered vital to a revival at Sony, which under its first foreign boss Howard Stringer is in the midst of a restructuring including 10,000 job cuts.
