- HELSINKI (Reuters) - Nokia
Thursday pointed the finger at counterfeit batteries after another of its
phones exploded and burned its user, the third such case in two months,
and said original batteries sold with its phones were safe.
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- The world's largest mobile phone maker said earlier a
young Vietnamese woman was hospitalized with burns after her mobile phone
apparently exploded.
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- The incident follows two similar accidents in the Netherlands,
one last week and the other in August.
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- Following the latest Dutch incident, which left a 15-year-old
boy in the town of Hengelo with leg burns, the country's consumer watchdog
said it would probe the case.
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- "We don't yet have any information on what is the
origin of the battery in the Vietnam case," Nokia Mobile Phones spokesman
Kari Tuutti told Reuters.
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- "(But) there hasn't been a single case of an original
battery exploding anywhere in the world," he said.
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- Nokia has cited faulty batteries from independent electronics
manufacturers for similar incidents in the past.
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- Nokia has said these manufacturers violated security
requirements which should prevent the battery heating up after short circuiting,
for instance, after the phone was dropped.
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- Contraband and counterfeit mobile phone batteries are
widely available in Vietnam in local markets at around $2-$3 a piece compared
to $20 for genuine product, a local Nokia spokesman said.
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- "The biggest issue is with counterfeit, illegal
batteries," Tuutti said. "Therefore we recommend that retailers
and consumers try to verify the products sold have original batteries."
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- Mobile phones are becoming increasingly popular in Vietnam
despite modest incomes and there are around 1.6 million mobile phone users
among the population of 80 million.
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