Battery Recall Alters Laptop Sales

This year's massive recall of potentially flammable Sony batteries in laptops will alter IT buyers' purchasing decisions in the coming months, a recent survey by market research firm IDC has found.

Of 500 corporate IT decision-makers surveyed, 15 percent said the recall would alter the brand of laptops they planned to buy. Respondents didn't clarify which brands they were most likely to stray from, but Apple, Dell, Fujitsu, Gateway, Lenovo, Panasonic, Sony and Toshiba were among the PC-makers that recalled batteries since this past August.

Neither Hewlett-Packard nor Acer recalled any batteries. However, before this most recent recall, Lenovo (formerly IBM) was the only PC-maker that had never issued a battery recall, according to IDC.

Dell, however, could take a larger hit than the other PC vendors because of the market share it held and the 4.1 million batteries it had to recall.

"I think it's probably improved our competitive situation over Dell overall, but at this point it hasn't really affected us," says Doug Logan, owner of ProviderTech, a Cedar Park, Texas-based VAR.

The survey also revealed consistent findings among 200 consumer buyers, with about 15 percent also planning to alter their brand choice based on the recall.

The purchasing shift, especially in the corporate market, where purchases are larger, could have a slight impact on PC market share, IDC predicted.

On a positive note for PC resellers, end users show no signs of buying fewer notebooks because of the recall, as mobility continues to increase in the workforce and laptop sales continue to outpace desktop PC sales.

Among the latest laptops to hit the market this winter is Lenovo's 15.4-inch ThinkPad T60 widescreen notebook PC, the first widescreen model in the vendor's corporate T60 line. Geared for business road warriors, the new notebook is lightweight for its size, weighing in at only 5 pounds. Other notable features include multiple WAN connectivity options and enhanced graphics capabilities. The T60 is also Windows Vista-compatible.