Batteries!!!

It really seems like Dell is always coming up for something. This time, it's the 4.1 million laptop batteries that were just recalled. What's great is when a company as huge as Dell recalls so many parts, it's all over the news and everyone wants to talk about it. So here ya go, my take on the Dell battery situation.

First off, this isn't the first time Dell has recalled laptop parts, such as batteries or power adapters. In fact, I did a little research and dellbatteryprogram.com was registered almost a year ago, probably in response to a recall in December of 35,000 batteries. These were also recalled for heat issues, just like the current recall.

What inspired me to write this article was a certain reaction from The Professional Inventors Alliance. Their president, Ronald Riley, was recently quoted as saying "Dell does not in my opinion have the engineering expertise which other companies who actually advance the technology have." He continued to say that Dell cuts costs across the board, including the R & D department, in order to keep costs down, and that practice is why batteries are igniting. With a little innovation, this problem would not have happened. It seems Lenovo, HP, Gateway and the others who have Sony batteries would agree.

That brings me back to my last topic about heat. (In case you were wondering, 23 minutes on the phone, 4 days later a tech shows up, can't fix it, new machine about a week later. That's next-day on-site for ya.) Dell's own XPS-700 machine, the biggest dog they've ever launched, was repeatedly pushed back because of heat issues. Is it their fault or Intel/NVIDIA's for making such hot products? In a desktop, it's Dell's fault because I can build one fine.

But what about laptops? There are about 5 or 6 actual laptop manufacturers now. Dell gets most of their machines made by a company named Quanta. They basically take a stock chassis and put pretty Dell plastic all over it. Quanta then takes that same chassis as sell it to Alienware, who gets Alien plastic all over. So is it the plastic? No. The true answer is pretty simple actually:

Dell sold millions of laptops last year. They are the laptop kings, and there's significant hatred for them because of support issues like the one I just went through. When The Inquirer broke a story about an Inspiron bursting into flames, it was only a few days before more and more stories about exploding Dell's showed up. Shortly thereafter, Dell bit the bullet and dropped ~$250 Million in a PR stunt.

That's all there is too it. Whether it's cell phones, laptops, PDA's, or anything with a rechargeable battery, they are all vulnerable to battery explosion. In a cell phone, the battery is hidden away, and when it blows, it probably doesn't do too much damage. In a laptop though, the battery is mostly exposed and when it catches, it burns like the Dickens. Yes there are design cues we should take to keep damage minimal, but these things are just going to blow, no way around it.

So the big question is: "What about laptops on planes now that we know they blow up?" Well, I'll tell you one thing, the answer isn't to kick all Dells off planes. That would only take care of Dell's share. I think it's going to require a redesign of both the batteries and the machines they plug into.