“Apple Japan Inc. and Sony Corp. have agreed to jointly pay about ¥1.3 million (US$12,875) to settle a damages suit filed by a Japanese couple who argued that the husband had suffered burns after their Apple personal computer caught fire due to its Sony-made battery, judicial sources said, according to Kyodo News Agency,” Dow Jones reports.
“The fire burnt part of the floor and carpet, and the husband suffered burns to his fingers as he tried to take the computer out of the house. The wife’s health was affected due to the shock of the incident, they said,” Dow Jones reports.
“During the trial, Apple Japan accepted liability but insisted it could not settle the dispute out of court because the couple had demanded excessive compensation. Sony argued a link between the fire and the battery has not been determined,” Dow Jones reports.
“Sony has recalled 9.6 million lithium ion batteries with the help of personal computer makers since a number of fires linked with Sony-made batteries were reported in 2006,” Dow Jones reports.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Sony should pay the lion’s share, if not all, of that ¥1.3 million (US$12,875), not Apple. And then Sony and Apple ought to sue the guy for morbid stupidity. Seriously, McDonald’s coffee drinkers, grabbing a burning object with your bare hands will cause, uh, burns. Do you need that printed on every object in the world that’s capable of catching fire? Exactly how hard would it have been to throw wet towel on the thing or, God forbid, spray it with a fire extinguisher first?
That is less then $14,000 US Dollars.
simply hot and shocking news
based on the current exchange rate:
1,300,000.00 JPY = 12,860.0071 USD
Even the 2 million yen they were asking for is not really out of line or excessive. Fixing the floor damage, replacing the carpet, buying a new Mac Book Pro, and the inconvenience of it all is worth more then the 2 Million Yen. The fingers burns are the result of the biggest boneheaded move a person could make.
Object on fire = object might be hot and burn… best options (fire extinguisher, a box of salt, a box of baking soda, damp towel …)
Object on fire = must get it outside at any cost! so, house does not burn down.
2,000,000.00 JPY = 19,787.6314 USD
@Demon
It’s that extra US$ 0.0014 that breaks the bank
Another lawsuit settled…..
Bring in the next thousand lawsuits!
He could have peed on it first. Well, if it had been a Windows machine he could have.
Well, thank god that suit was in Japan, where outrageous awards are not SOP.
Apple should pay for the damages, then go after Sony; Sony is Apple’s vendor. Regardless, this couple should be compensated for their losses, but if he really did grab the computer to get it out of the house, the injuries were self-inflicted. I mean come on.
Facts about the McDonald’s case are very different. Maybe you should read the following: http://www.lectlaw.com/files/cur78.htm. Remember we chide the Windows loving media for the very same kinds of poorly reported material.
A WET TOWEL on a LITHIUM FIRE? Are you people out of your minds?
Seriously, if you don’t know the first thing about lithium-ion battery safety, you ought not be criticizing someone else.
wannabe,
My thoughts exactly.
Pouring water on a Class D fire is a recipe for an explosion.
Kids?
Water+metal on fire=Very Bad Things
You all do pretty well most often and I enjoy the page most of the time. But you have no creditability when commenting on how people should or do behave when faced with a fire. Of course they should be “logical”. But I can tell you most are not. It may even be “impossible” for most mortals to be “logical” in such a situation. So those (the majority) who are not, probably should not be punished or bad mouthed. Best to stick with Apple/Microsoft issues, at least IMO.
@ Demon
“Even the 2 million yen they were asking for is not really out of line or excessive”
Just because the figure is “not really out of line” in lawsuit-happy USA doesn’t mean it’s the same in the rest of the world.
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And yes, he really is an ass for grabbing the thing with his bare hands. Or perhaps he was just be heroic.
Apple is in the wrong. If they had made their cases out of cheap plastic which melts before burning, the guys hands would have had a gooey layer of protection on his hands.
@ mdn
picking up a substance in protective manner (cup) is one thing, said item spilling out is entirely possibly, however, a consumable/edible/drinkable item that has been heated to where it cause serious burns when spilled is something entirely different.
if you’re serving such items you’d better either turn down or off the flame or provide conspicuous labeling thats states: DO ALLOW CONTENTS CONTACT WITH SKIN… …for whatever time period BECAUSE WE HEAT TO STAY HOT NOT TO DRINK IMMEDIATELY or some such warning because you’re not serving coffee you’re serving FLAMES/FIRE.
i spill my first morning “coffee” and get 2nd or 3rd degree burns.. oh yeah, you get sued.
criticism of those cases is so entirely WRONG. (though your usage above is a complete misfire.)
that’s “probable” and “DO NOT ALLOW…”
To me this case is a testament to saving money by NOT letting loose the lawyers.
Clearly Sony should be paying the entire cost. There is blatant precedent for blaming Sony’s poor battery quality. You don’t recall 9.6 MILLION batteries because you forgot to paste a smiley face on the label.
That Apple took any blame at all in this case points out how much cheaper it is to accept non-existent responsibility and pay the defendant rather than fork out even more dough to parasitic lawyers. Welcome to the modern world of justice.
:-Q*********
The Apple ‘Millions Of Colors’ LCD FRAUD.
Now there’s something worth suing Apple over.
6 bit color. Yeah. I can do math.
262,144 colors = Millions how?
Quit dithering Apple and come clean!
Just wondering and I probably shouldn’t assume but… if the battery is on the bottom of the laptop that would be where the fire starts correct? And if the main part of the fire is on the bottom… wouldn’t you grab the top of the LCD? Or was the entire thing scorching in flames? If so he would have had burns on his arms too. Not the smartest move but not the dumbest either to rush it out of the house. Yeah losing a house from that would get you a new one but they aren’t going to replace photos and memorabilia you had….This shows that not everyone has a fire extinguisher in their house or even fire blanket or god forbid, a towel that you can hit with some water.
He probably just thought that a MacBook would catch fire like a crappy dell, I guess he was wrong.
The book Direct from Dell Strategies That Revolutionized an Industry, by Michael Dell Chairman and CEO, Dell Computer Corporation with Catherine Fredman, Copyright 1999; page xiii, pages 50-56. Addendum 5“No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.” copyright page preface Ibid. Page xiii “1993 Suffering from the pains of extremely rapid growth, Dell cancels a secondary offering and posts its only quarterly loss resulting from a temporary withdrawal from the notebook market, its exit from retail stores, and a restructuring of European operations.” Page xiii Ibid.
“We also had introduced one of the thinnest and lightest sub/ notebook computers available. But as our products got increasingly more ambitious in their technical complexity , it became apparent to me that we didn’t have the capability inside the company to get the products to market on time, much less designed correctly.” (emphasis added) page 50 Ibid. docket 80 Addendum 5
“The first difficulty we encountered was with the design of a new product. Basically, our approach to designing notebooks was almost exactly the same as our approach to designing desktops, which makes about as much sense as treating children like mini-adults. Strange as it sounds, this happened in large part simply because some engineers from our desktop division transferred into notebooks.” page 50 Ibid. docket 80 Addendum 5
“Clearly, this wasn’t the right way to approach the design. Designing a desktop is not the same as designing a portable computer. In a desktop there are between thirty and thirty-five parts; in an average notebook, there are twice as many. And the parts don’t all work together in a portable the way they do in a desktop PC.” page 51 Ibid. Addendum 5
“* The delay was due to feature creep, which occurs when too many features are added to a product until, ultimately, it becomes over designed.” footnote page 51 Ibid. Addendum 5
“We also knew , though, that correcting the products by redesigning them, validating the new design, manufacturing them, and delivering them would have taken so long that by the time we got them out the door, we’d be at the tail end of the product life cycle.” page 51 Ibid. docket 80 Addendum 5
The book Direct from Dell Strategies That Revolutionized an Industry was provided to Defendants. Michael Dell was a listed expert The book Direct from Dell Strategies That Revolutionized an Industry docket 80 Addendum 5 , by Michael Dell Chairman and CEO, Dell Computer Corporation with Catherine Fredman, Copyright 1999 was provided to Defendants. Satisfying plaintiffs requirements regarding Michael Dell’s expert opinions as quoted above per Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(a)(2)(B). The book reviewed his qualifications and the gist of his opinion.