Apple recalls some Beats Pill XL speakers

[SAN FRANCISCO] Apple Inc said it is recalling some Beats Pill XL portable wireless speakers due to a fire hazard caused by overheating batteries.

The iPhone maker will recall about 222,000 speakers in the United States and about 11,000 in Canada, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) said on Wednesday.

Apple has received eight reports of overheating speakers, the CPSC said in a statement.

The company did not disclose the number of speakers affected by the recall or the number of complaints it received, but said the recall does not affect any other Beats or Apple products.

Apple said it will issue store credit or a refund worth US$325 within about three weeks of receiving the faulty speakers, which were introduced by Beats in November 2013.

Apple agreed to buy Beats for about US$3 billion in May 2014 in an effort to jump-start an uneven attempt to make headway in music streaming as iTunes sales were declining.

This is not the first time that Apple has had to recall products.

The company had launched an iPhone replacement program in August last year after admitting some smartphones sold between September 2012 and January 2013 had faulty batteries.

In 2011, network connectivity issues had forced Apple to recall some iPad2 tablets that were designed to run on Verizon's network.

REUTERS