Dell Battery Recall- Win for the Web

conq writes "BusinessWeek has an article on how the Dell recalls show the true power of the web and how the attack on the Dell batteries evolved on the web. From the article: But in cyberspace the race was on to dig out every last byte of 'truth' about those flaming PCs. Gadget news blogs like Gizmodo and Engadget spat out facts and rumors with equal zeal. They were relentless advocates for the consumer, too. On July 31, Engadget posted photos of a Dell notebook that had caught fire in Singapore. Its comment: 'We'll keep posting these until we see a recall or a solution, so please, Dell, treat 'em right.'"

Re:This helped for the apple recall too

[clickclickdrone]

AFAIK Sony are coughing up for this one. I read that this plus the ongoing PS3 and Blue-ray issues are being cited as wrecking their attempts at a turnaround this year.

Re:This helped for the apple recall too

[Afrosheen]

You are correct, Sony is footing most of the bill. The funny thing is, the majority of the batteries involved (in the older D600 series and across the line) have already gone to battery heaven due to their age and lack of storage ability. None of my 6 clients with D600's had a battery affected by the recall.

  Dell estimated the bill at around $300m USD so it's just a one-time write-off for Sony. With their total sales of $71.2B USD in 2004, I doubt that 300m USD will hurt them at all. It's more painful for their reputation than anything. After all, when big boys like Dell and Apple rely on you for batteries and you give them C4, they get upset.

Re:Dell vs Apple

[chrismsummers]

The batteries in Apples caught fire as well. Do a quick check for 'apple battery fires' on google and you will see several instances where the batteries in Apple laptops caught fire.