By Sarah Falson
SYDNEY: Hitachi Australia has confirmed that it is does not locally sell the laptop PCs which have now been included in the global Sony battery recall-crisis which already involves Toshiba, Fujitsu PC, Dell, Apple Computer and IBM’s business computer-brand Lenovo.
According to Hitachi Australia general manager – marketing and sales, Geoff Hannaford, the Hitachi notebook computers were sold only in Japan.
“For Hitachi it only applies to [the] Japan domestic market; this product segment is not exported,” Hannaford told Current.com.au
Each of Toshiba, Fujitsu PC, Dell, Apple Computer and IBM’s business computer-brand Lenovo have already been burned by the reputation of a faulty line of Sony-branded lithium-ion batteries – which can overheat and catch on fire – that power their computers.
The scare comes off the back of a well-reported incident in September when a passenger boarding an aircraft in Los Angeles found his Lenovo ThinkPad T47 notebook computer sparking and smoking in his carry-on bag.
Sony explained that microscopic metal particles included in its batteries can short-circuit when they come in contact with other parts of the battery cell.
The number of Japan-sold Hitachi notebook computers that will be recalled is yet to be confirmed, but as of last week, over six million other-branded units had already been put-on-notice globally, representing the largest recall of its kind in the world.