The announcement affects laptop computers - the iBook G4 and Powerbook G4 - sold between October 2003 and August 2006.

It follows Dell's decision to recall more than 4m batteries from its laptops last week.

The recall does not affect the company's latest line-up of laptops - the MacBook and MacBook Pro.

Financial impact

"We discovered that some Sony batteries in previous models of PowerPC-based iBooks and PowerBooks do not meet Apple's standards for safety and performance," Apple said in a statement.

"Our number one priority is to recall and replace the affected batteries free of charge."

According to US safety officials, the batteries were made by Sony, who also supplied similar batteries to Dell.

Apple spokesman Steve Dowling said that Sony, as the manufacturer of the recalled battery packs, "is responsible".

While Apple is not expecting any "material financial impact" from the recall, Sony predicts that the recall of its Dell and Apple batteries will cost the firm between 20bn and 30bn yen ($172m to $258m).

Apple has said it has received a total of nine complaints so far from users reporting "overheating" of the batteries.

The announcement was made by the United States government's Consumer Product Safety Commission, which said two of the nine users reported minor burns from the machines.

In the US, 1.1m machines are affected with a further 700,000 Apple laptops sold overseas also involved in the recall.

The recall is believed to be the second-biggest in US history involving electronics or computers.

I don't have a Dell or Apple computer.
So, it will cost Sony the most money and not Apple?
That would suck if you had your laptop on your lap and your computer 'sploded

LOL, yeah. You could sue Apple or Sony though.

Mmhm. Sony will pay for all the batteries 'cause they manufactured them. Same thing with Dell too.
I wonder if Sony has the same batteries for it's Sony Vaio laptops.. Now that would truly suck for Sony.

Calculations:
$258,000,000 (approx, for Apple)
+400,000,000 (approx, for Dell)
$658,000,000

And a few more million for the Sony Vaio laptops (maybe.) might just destroy Sony! I can't really find how much the company is worth though..
But I checked their stocks, and it's going down!
So maybe there's a chance for bankruptcy?

Just as we suspected, Dell may not be the only manufacturer recalling countless batteries due to fire hazards, as the Sony-made lithium-ions are also found in laptops from Apple, HP, and Lenovo, not to mention a variety of other consumer electronics products.