After the US Consumer Product Safety Commission initiated its investigation on Sony's malfunctioning batteries, Japan's trade ministry announced the company and also Dell that the two makers should start their own 'research' on what has happened during the mass production of the Lithium Ion batteries and why a high percentage of them ended up in notebooks and other devices.

As you may already know, 6 million batteries manufactured by Sony have been already recalled from the market as they pose a high risk on their owners, being able to explode anytime during functioning. But the Japanese trade ministry representative added that the two companies are obliged to report their findings after a predetermined period of time which hasn't been revealed to the media.

Moreover, Sony could also face the same financial disaster if the US Consumer Product Safety Commission's investigation will show that the maker's batteries could endanger the consumers. But the problem is pretty serious, as Sony's batteries aren't used only in Dell's notebooks, but also in the ones retailed by Apple, HP and Lenovo. Daily Tech said that HP representatives recently stated that this "it's a Dell issue" and that the company will not be affected by the Commission's investigation.

"Analysts say that Dell's recall of 4.1 million batteries could cost up to $300 million depending on how many users actually send in their batteries. Lenovo told reporters that it was not recalling any batteries yet and Apple said it would look into the situation. Out of all the manufacturers using batteries from Sony, only Dell has issued a recall. Interestingly, a Sony representative told reporters that Sony believes the problem to be isolated to just Dell," writes Daily Tech.