Japanese authorities are reporting the first case of an
Apple laptop catching fire in Japan.
Apple spokeswoman Michiko Matsumoto says a laptop made by
Apple Computer Inc. overheated and caught fire in April, causing the user to sustain minor burns.
Last week, Calif.-based company told its customers to return 1.8 million
batteries worldwide that could cause their laptops to overheat and catch fire, just 10 days after
Dell Inc. recalled 4.1 million faulty laptop batteries for the same reason. It was the largest recall involving electronics in the history of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.
In both cases, the problematic lithium-ion batteries were made by
Sony Energy Devices Corp., a subsidiary of Sony Corp. based in
Japan .
Last week, ministry officials reported that batteries in
Dell laptops imported to Japan caught fire in at least two separate instances in October and June. No one was injured in those incidents, but the fires destroyed the machines.
Battery packs contain cells of rolled up metal strips. Sony has said that during production, crimping the rolls left tiny shards of metal loose in the cells, and some of those shards can cause batteries to short-circuit, or in extreme cases, catch fire.
Apple's Matsumoto declined to say the number of batteries in recall involves Japan and how many have been recalled.
The trade ministry has also instructed other Japanese electronic makers to check the safety of their laptop batteries.
Dell has already recalled batteries from affected models in Japan. Batteries powering Sony's Vaio laptops don't have the same problems, according to the Tokyo-based manufacturer.