Worry over mobile phone EXPLOSIONS! - Brazil news

[sole seeker]

Worry over mobile phone explosions
Sun May 14, 1:14 PM ET​

At least five mobile phones have exploded over the last two months in Brazil, causing anxiety among phone users and making news headlines.

The incidents, representing only a fraction of the 89 million phones in circulation in Brazil, all involved Motorola phones. The company said it was investigating and Brazil's telecommunication agency is pursuing the case as well.

In the most recent incident on April 30, the 34-year-old victim in Formosa, Goias state, had surgery for burns on her thighs and arms. She was driving with the phone in her lap when it exploded.

Other accidents since the beginning of April were reported in Rio de Janeiro and three cities in Sao Paulo state.

Motorola said the probable cause of the explosion was that the owners used non-original or low-quality batteries.

"We are having a strong campaign to alert users not to buy accessories which are not original. It's very common for people to do this in markets or non-authorized stores," Motorola spokeswoman Samantha Simon said last week.

 

[Dário F]

I heard this a couple of months ago. I can only hope that this doesn't spread any further given the increasing number of non-original stuff around the globe... The main problem here and on a lot other places is that people wanna save the few bucks/euros they have, so they end up, most of the times, turning to the "black market". It's gonna be a real problem dealing with this.