SHARES IN Sony fell yesterday after the Japanese electronics group was forced to recall thousands of defective laptops because of a risk that they could overheat and cause burns.
The recall affects 440,000 laptops in Sony's Vaio TZ series that were sold across 48 countries between May 2007 and July 2008, including Ireland.
All model numbers beginning VGN TZ1 and VGN TZ2 have been affected, while certain laptops with model numbers beginning VGN TZ3 are also being recalled.
Sony has heard of 209 cases of laptops overheating, including seven in which the users suffered minor burns.
Sony Ireland said "it was too early to say" how many computers sold in the Republic would be affected by the recall.
The design flaw means that wires near the hinge that connects the body of the laptop to the display are positioned wrongly and can short-circuit and overheat after prolonged use.
"The problem takes time to emerge, so we didn't catch it in our quality control tests," Sony said yesterday.
Sony's image was tarnished a few years ago when it had to recall 10 million laptop batteries used by makers including Sony, Dell and Lenovo after it emerged that in certain circumstances the battery could overheat and catch fire. That incident led to a 51.2 billion yen provision for the Japanese group.
However, the group yesterday faced criticism for being too slow to inform regulators about the latest issue. It first became aware of the problem a year ago, but did not report it to the Japanese regulators until last month.
Most analysts felt that the recall would have little immediate impact on Sony's financial results.
Sony's shares fell by 4.2 per cent to Y3,880, their lowest for almost three years, affected by a rise in the yen against the dollar and the euro as well as the laptop recall.
Sony is asking Irish owners of the affected laptops to visit its website www.sony.co.uk or call 1800 837 475 for more information.
It has promised to arrange collection, inspection and repair of the notebooks free of charge.
- (Financial Times service)
