Head of Sony PR
Toshiba Corp. said on Monday that it may seek compensation from Sony Corp for possible damage to its brand image and a loss of potential sales due to a recall of Sony-made batteries used in its laptops.
Toshiba has joined other computer makers such as Dell, Apple Computer, Lenovo, IBM, Sharp, Fujitsu Ltd. and Hitachi Ltd. in recalling Sony batteries, which Sony has said can on rare occasions overheat and catch fire.
Sony has said that it would pay for the recall costs.
A Toshiba spokesman said the company may also look to seek damages for its brand and sales.
What? Did you think one Japanese company wouldn’t sue another over this debacle?
But which court will they sue in? American or Japanese?
As best I recall, suits like this take longer in Japan than they do here. Sony’s liable to be out of business by the time it’s settled.
Well, as a reseller I can say that laptop sales are down a bit, and most of that is thanks to the media with stories of doom and gloom. Customers relate the stories (most of it is their own interpretation of what they hear) they hear about laptops blowing up and all kinds of crazy stuff. As much as I try and dispell some of the myths surrounding this hype, their mind is made up … so, Toshiba may be correct in thinking that this will hurt their sales. I personally don’t support this theory of every laptop is a time bomb, but it’s hard to convince thousands of customers otherwise when they see this stuff on the news. Keeping in mind that Toshiba is effectively pi$$ing in the wind because they could sue everybody in the world and it still won’t change a potential customer’s mind.
As much as I try and dispell some of the myths
Easy solution: just look at their laptop and tell them, definitively, whether it will ever have a catastrophic battery problem or not.
If you can’t do that, however, they have a right to be worried.
#3, Bill
How could Toshiba be “pissing into the wind”over this suit when you admit that laptop sales are down and people are afraid the batteries might blow up. It seems to me that that is the exact genesis of Toshibas’ law suit against the battery manufacturer, Sony. Through Sony’s negligence, Toshiba is losing money. Now that sounds like a classic Tort to me.
lol sony hasnt had ANY good news in ages…
sony rootkits…
ps3 costs em about 900 to make, 500 to 600 to sell – buy a ps3, sink sony…
battery fiasco…
if you have any stock in sony, selling it all now would be a great idea