Japan Sitting on Flaming iPods?

Japan Sitting on Flaming iPods?

Techtree News Staff, Mar 12, 2008 2301 hrs IST

Today, an Apple iPod sparked off in Japan while charging causing the government to order Apple to investigate the cause of the fire.

Japan today had an instance of an Apple iPod sparking off and catching fire while recharging -- causing the country's trade and economy ministry to instruct Apple Japan to investigate the cause and report back -- according to an Associated Press (AP) report.

An official at the ministry was quoted (on condition of anonymity) as saying that a defect is suspected in the lithium-ion battery in iPod nano, model number MA099J/A. Fortunately, noone has been injured. However, further details are not available.

The ministry official said that the faulty iPod was assembled in China but that it's unclear as to who manufactured the lithium-ion battery inside. According to a ministry statement, Apple has shipped around 425,000 iPods of the suspected model into Japan. However it isn't known how many of those have been sold, and how many might still be there on store shelves. Shipments of this model began in September 2005 and were discontinued after September 2006.

The ministry statement hasn't been contested by Apple. But the company remains incommunicado on the matter.

However, Masayoshi Suzuki, an Apple spokesman based out of Tokyo, told AP that nano players are sold all over the world, and that it is still unclear where else besides Japan the suspected model was sold.

Coming to lithium-ion batteries, these have in the past caused fires leading to massive recalls like the one issued by Sony Corp -- the company recalled nearly 10 million batteries following reports of some computers with Sony power packs overheating and bursting into flames.

By contrast, batteries in Apple products have had problems in the past -- but mostly about wearing out -- never about being prone to fires.