Kyocera Wireless Corp. said it will temporarily halt shipments of several handset models following reports that a Kyocera phone apparently exploded just days after a Nebraska family purchased it.
According to Nebraska TV station WOWT 6 News, an area family purchased a Kyocera phone through Cricket carrier Leap Wireless International and it exploded without warning. The battery blew out of its compartment, leaving the phone sizzling and smoking, according to the report. None of the family members were injured in the incident, which occurred in their car while the family was driving.
“Kyocera Wireless Corp. is fully committed to the safety of our products and the consumers who use them,” Kyocera said in a statement. “We have been in contact with the customer and are currently gathering additional details to complete our investigation. As a precautionary measure, we have temporarily stopped shipment on this phone until we can gather all the facts.”
The company said it will stop shipments of its KE400/KX400 series mobile phones, which covers almost half of the company’s current handset portfolio. Kyocera’s Blade, Phantom and Rave series phones all fall under the KE400/KX400 designation and use the same basic components. Kyocera sells the phones throughout the world, including in New Zealand, Latin America and Australia. Leap, Verizon Wireless and others sell the phones in the United States. The company introduced the phones in March and began selling them in recent months.
Kyocera said its investigation was ongoing as of press time Friday afternoon.
Kyocera is not alone in the exploding-phone department. Nokia Corp. has been dogged by similar complaints, including a recent incident in the Netherlands. Nokia couldn’t immediately comment on the most recent occurrence, but in the past has blamed such incidents on faulty batteries manufactured by other companies.
In other Kyocera news, the company said it will make push-to-talk phones through a new deal with PTT technology company Togabi Technologies. The phones should be available early next year.
Kyocera is the second company to license technology from Togabi; Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. announced a similar deal earlier this year.
Nextel Communications Inc. has been offering PTT services with Motorola Inc. handsets for years. Verizon Wireless just became the first carrier to challenge Nextel with its own PTT offering, which uses a Motorola phone. Sprint PCS has said it soon plans to launch its own PTT service, which is rumored to use Sanyo phones.
“PTT is clearly being embraced by a growing number of CDMA carriers, and Kyocera Wireless is committed to working with technology leaders like Togabi to provide those carriers with PTT-enabled handsets that will be compelling to their customers,” said Tsuyoshi Mano, president of Kyocera. “All of our phones are designed to simplify the lives of their users, and we believe many of those users will use PTT to stay better connected.”
