Michael Santo of RealTechNews writes:

Recently I wrote about an exploding Dell in Osaka, Japan. Since the original report was from The Inquirer, there were some doubters (including, at first, me, until reports showed up in more reliable places). However, a second report, this one in Pennsylvania, has PR people working overtime and investors worried about the value of Dell stock.

Last Thursday, citing reports of a second smoking laptop, this one in Pennsylvania, she advised them that “should this story also hit the mainstream press, we believe there is headline risk and potentially negative demand ramifications for Dell.” [Source: The New York Times via IHT]

We Say: In both cases, Dell investigations did reveal the laptops either smoked or burst into flames (sorry, Inquirer naysayers). In the Japan incident, it was a faulty battery, though not related to last year’s battery recall. The Pennsylvania issue was due to a chip problem. Dell’s image has been tarnished by other issues unrelated to smoking laptops, such as customer service, and this is the wrong time for any other negative press.

Have comments? Want to see what others have to say about this story? Join the discussion here!

About RealTechNews
When blogs became “hot,” we looked at the category and found a gap. Tech blogs were furiously covering gadgets and gizmos and new products from Asia, and the mainstream tech sites were diligently doing product reviews and news items, but no one was really sitting in the middle and bringing the best of both worlds to one place. Enter RealTechNews (RTN). Our mission is simple: We aim to bridge the gap between the informal and mostly amateur-run tech blogs and the polished but often slow and advertiser-supported tech portals.

[tags]dell,dell explode,exploding laptop,laptop on fire,smoking laptop,faulty battery[/tags]