These Batteries Should Not Have Been Included - Nokia's Advisory on Risky Batteries

Nokia, the Finland-based global cellphone leader, came out with a Product Advisory concerning risks of certain batteries overheating when charged. It even goes to say that the battery might get dislodged from a short-circuit fault, which presumably can potentially hit and hurt someone in the process. So far, no such damaging occurence has been reported.

Said advisory singled out the BL-5C Nokia Battery manufactured by Matsushita Battery Industrial Co. Ltd. of Japan that were made between December 2005 to November 2006. The Nokia website runs a product identification feature where affected customers can enter their battery's identification number to verify whether the battery in question falls within the scope of the advisory. A list of cellphones compatible to the BL-5C are also indicated on the website.

The advisory states that only 100 incidents of overheating while charging have been confirmed with the BL-5C line of batteries. The battery products from other manufacturers seem not affected. Although the occurence have been comparatively rare, Nokia offers free replacements for the 46 million units of the Matsushita BL-5C type battery in question.

Nokia is the largest cellphone company in the world, taking close to 37% of global mobile phone sales according to latest available statistics. During the 2nd quarter of 2007 alone, Nokia shipped over 100 million cellphone units worldwide.

The global demand for small-but-powerful gadgets is pushing technology experts to the limits of powering such micro technologies. Other high-technology companies like laptop manufacturers have recalled products in recent years due to faulty or otherwise risky power sources.