Apple battery fiasco

Hours after posting yesterday that the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) determined that substandard batteries for Apple's 15-inch MacBook Pro "didn't pose any safety threat" the same organized notified the public that Apple would be recalling 1.8 million Lithium Ion batteries sold for the PowerBook G4 and iBook G4.

According to the CPSC release:

Apple has received nine reports of batteries overheating, including two reports of minor burns from handling overheated computers and other reports of minor property damage. No serious injuries were reported.

Shortly after the CPSC released word of the massive recall Apple posted a page dedicated to the iBook G4 and PowerBook G4 Battery Exchange Program stating:

Apple has determined that certain lithium-ion batteries containing cells manufactured by Sony Corporation of Japan pose a safety risk that may result in overheating under rare circumstances. The affected batteries were sold worldwide from October 2003 through August 2006 for use with the following notebook computers: 12-inch iBook G4, 12-inch PowerBook G4 and 15-inch PowerBook G4.

The affected batteries are found in the following notebooks:

Computer model	Battery model number	Serial number range
12-inch iBook G4	A1061	ZZ338 - ZZ427 3K429 - 3K611 6C519 - 6C552
12-inch PowerBook G4	A1079	ZZ411 - ZZ427 3K428 - 3K611
15-inch PowerBook G4	A1078 and A1148	3K425 - 3K601 6N530 - 6N551 6N601

Yesterday's PowerBook and iBook battery recall is the third such recall for Apple in 15 months after 15-inch MacBook Pro batteries were recalled in July 2006 and iBook G4 and PowerBook G4 batteries were recalled in May 2005. Battery safety is an especially hot button issue (pardon the pun) right now in light of Dell's recall of 4.1 million batteries earlier this month.

This latest recall could have larger implications and lead to a wider probe of all of the Lithium Ion batteries manufactured by Sony.