Laptop batteries, are we all screwed?
You've seen the recalls. Toshiba, Dell, Apple, etc. have all had their own problems with laptop batteries catching on fire. It's relatively rare but it's happening.
The problem is that nearly all modern laptop batteries are made by Sony. Today a user reports that they saw a Lenova ThinkPad catch on fire at LAX. It's too early to know whether this was caused by the same battery issue or just some freak accident, but the issue is unnerving.
With the vast majority of the laptop industry using batteries produced by a single supplier (Sony) it has made itself vulnerable for just this sort of catastrophic problem. A problem where not just some users of the product are affected but potentially every single customer. As we reported earlier, Toshiba just had to recall 340,000 batteries. That's just one supplier.
We will provide more reports as this develops.
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