Exploding Apples: First an iPod and now a PowerBook Combust
By Jenny • Mar 3rd, 2009 • Category: Laptops, Mobile Computer NewsApple has carved a major niche out for itself in the computing world with its much vaunted Apple MacBook series. Meanwhile, the iPhone dominates the smartphone market, and the iPod reigns supreme among MP3 players. Despite Steve Jobs’ departure, and slightly declining sales amidst the economic crisis, Apple is still in an enviable position with a stunning product lineup. That is until the company’s products started blowing up. A few months ago an exploded iPod was creating buzz in the blogosphere and everywhere else and now an exploded Apple Laptop is ready to shake the confidence of Apple fans once again.
Recently, in a London office an Apple laptop got surrounded by high flames and sparks. Initially, there was little smoke coming out from the battery compartment and soon it turned into ferocious flames and lightning sparks, according to office employees who were present at the time. To calm down the scene a fireman used the fire extinguisher and succeeded, but only for a while. After few minutes the flames began to multiply again. The battery of the laptop was turned into a hot and red molten material and was leaking out.
The laptop was a three to four year old model and used a Lithium-ion battery pack for power supply. Such in incident is very unlikely to occur with a brand new Apple MacBook Pro, although you never know. Apple is now checking the serial number of the laptop to see whether the device was a part of the series whose battery was recalled few years back. This is not the first time that a laptop turned into ashes because of a poor battery. Many other companies including Nokia, Lenovo and Toshiba had gone through similar circumstances and recalled their batteries.
Tags for this article: apple, macbook, apple news
Do we know which company made the battery in the most recent Apple Notebook fire?
Hi Mike,
It seems the exploding battery was manufactured by Sony and known to have problems. Apple had a battery exchange programme from 2003-2006 for this risk-prone battery, yet the laptop owner in the article did not take part.
Cheers,
James