Just how much is this extensive battery recall going to end up costing Sony, who will be taking some of the brunt for Dell in this? For the more than 4 million units, Sony's looking at a very painful $200 to 300 Million according to some analysts. There's even a wild guess out there of $430 Million, but that is unsubstantiated. As mentioned earlier, many companies besides Dell will be affected by this recall, including HP, Apple and Lenovo, who all use Sony batteries.
There's no official word from Sony or Dell about the financial impact or estimated timeline to get everything taken care of, but likely there are many customers who won't even be aware of the problem for months to come. That is, until their laptop explodes and burns their car to ashes while they are shopping.