Report: Sony could have prevented flaming battery fiasco

Right about now, Sony probably wishes that they had never started making laptop batteries. The latest report is that the company was aware of the flaming problems last September, but they failed to properly study the problem.

They learned of the issue when a Dell battery caught on fire. Sony studied the problems with the Dell batteries, but they didn’t consider batteries made for other companies because no other reports had been made. If they had acted earlier, they likely could have avoided the ongoing massive recall and their growing reputation for bad management.