The New York Times reports that Dell “is recalling 4.1 million notebook computer batteries because they could erupt in flames.” The story points out what you were probably already thinking as well in a discussion of batteries that have caused fires on airplanes.
Dell’s official notice isn’t up yet, but when it does you’ll be able to read it here, presumably.
If each replacement battery costs about $100, when you figure in the cost of shipping both ways, that’s $400 million. Damn, that’s gotta hurt.
Update: Dell’s Battery Recall site is now live. I got a certificate error when I visited the site using either Firefox 1.5.0.6 or IE7 Beta 3 under Windows, because the secure certificate was issued by Starfield Secure Certification Authority, which is not listed as a trusted certificate provider.
Ed Bott 
Minor nitpick.
No way that each replacement battery costs $100. That’s a retail price. Even still, if we’re talking $50/battery that’s still a huge chunk of change.
Yea, but that battery has to be shipped from Taiwan or China, adding to the cost. Does anybody really test anything anymore? Was there no burn-in of these batteries way back? Oy.
This seemed to be the only story on the TV News broadcasts this morning and as per usual they played the fear factor up. As to the cost, you are assuming that Dell is carrying the full cost of replacing those batteries. The original battery manufacturer may be on hook for part of the cost.
Mousky,
You write: “you are assuming that Dell is carrying the full cost of replacing those batteries.”
Where do I say or even imply that? Go back and read what I wrote again. I never said it was all coming out of Dell’s corporate pocket. Even if the total cost is shared by two or three companies, it’s still a lot of money.
Sony was the manufacturer of the batteries in question. Ironically, I bought a new Sony VAIO laptop the day this was announced.
I bought a replacement battery for my Dell laptop about a month ago from http://www.laptopsforless.com/laptopbattery and it works great. Is there any reason to think that a replacement laptop battery would be any worse than the manufacturers?