IBM and Lenovo on Thursday joined the recall of laptop batteries manufactured by Sony, announcing that 526,000 batteries found in ThinkPad portables worldwide are part of the program. On Monday, the news broke that a ThinkPad with a Sony battery burst into flames at the Los Angeles International Airport last weekend.
According to an Associated Press article, 168,500 of the recalled batteries were sold in the United States. IBM and Lenovo are both involved because the batteries in question were sold between February 2005 and September 2006, and IBM sold its computer division to Lenovo in May 2005.
A spokeswoman for the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said that last Saturdayis incident didnit appear linked to the problems plaguing Sony-made batteries used in Apple and Dell laptops that have been recalled, but IBM and Lenovo initiated the action "as a precaution, given Sonyis past problems."
Lenovo has set up a Web page where consumers can receive more information.