Now Lenovo recalls Sony batteries

The world's third-largest computer company Lenovo announced that it was recalling 500,000 Sony-made laptop batteries, making it the fourthj computer maker to decide to recall laptop batteries.

The recalls were triggered after reports of laptop explosions after the battery malfunction. According to the US consumer product safety commission, there had been 47 reports of batteries catching fire.

Last month, Dell asked customers to return 4.1 million batteries, while Apple Computer recalled 1.8 million batteries worldwide amid concerns they could catch fire.

Toshiba is also recalling 340,000 Sony-made laptop batteries. However, the recall decision has been taken because of a problem causing the computers to run out of power.

Japanese manufacturer Fujitsu also said that the company would make a decision soon about whether to recall laptops using Sony-manufactured batteries.

Following the Dell and Apple announcements, Sony said the two recalls would cost it between $171 million to $256 million - almost a quarter of its net profit for the current business year to March.

The setbacks have seen Sony's share price slide by almost 9 per cent since Dell announced its recall. Shares fell around 1 per cent in today''s trading on news of Lenovo being the latest to recall the batteries.