Dell Gets Burned: What Should You Do to Protect Your Users?
Dell just announced the largest recall of any consumer electronic item in history: 4.1 million lithium-ion batteries manufactured by Sony and used in over 30 of its models. The recall was precipitated by a small number of overheated batteries in notebooks getting hot enough to cause a fire or potentially explode. Although the risk of such mishaps is small, Dell did the right thing for its customers and itself by taking no chances on someone getting hurt (or worse). Obviously, a recall of such magnitude will not be inexpensive. (We estimate that it will cost Dell at least $50 for each battery, or over $200 million, although some substantial amount will be funded by Sony.)