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Sorry: Sony apologises for laptop battery fiasco
And prepares to foot £228m bill for replacements...

By Gemma Simpson

Published: Thursday 26 October 2006

Sony has apologised for the laptop battery recall saga and announced details of the global replacement programme to address customer concerns.

Yutaka Nakagawa, executive deputy president of Sony, said Sony regrets any inconvenience or concern caused to customers and PC users who may have been affected by the recent issues involving Sony-manufactured batteries.

Sony said its replacement programme covers all laptop computer battery packs containing the same types of Sony-manufactured battery cells involved in the Apple, Dell and Lenovo recalls.

The total estimated cost to Sony for this replacement programme is around ¥51bn (roughly £228m), with the estimate covering the potential of up to 9.6 million battery packs being replaced.

The battery recall has hit many laptop manufacturers. Dell alone is reportedly recalling 4.1 million laptop batteries, with makers including Apple, Fujitsu, Hitachi, IBM and Lenovo also recalling Sony batteries.

Sony even started recalling 90,000 of its own Vaio laptop batteries last week.