Following in the footsteps of Dell, which recalled 4.1 million batteries earlier this month, Apple has announced its own recall of 1.8 million batteries made by Sony. The company says the batteries could overheat in "rare circumstances."

The Sony batteries have been the subject of increased scrutiny after media reports caught footage of at least two laptops catching fire due to the batteries overheating. The most notable of these was a laptop in Japan that exploded on video during a conference, prompting the company to launch an investigation into the matter.

Apple says affected batteries were shipped in 12-inch iBook G4, and 12-inch and 15-inch PowerBook G4 notebook computers between October 2003 and August 2006. The decision to recall the units was made in cooperation with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and other international safety authorities.

After they submit their details, customers will receive a new battery in the mail. Apple says it may take up to 4 to 6 weeks for the battery to arrive due to the extensive nature of the recall.

"If you participated in a previous battery recall for any of these computer models or recently purchased or received from Apple an extra battery for an iBook G3, please check your battery serial number in case you received a replacement battery that is affected by this program," the company noted.

This isn't the first time Apple has recalled its laptop batteries. In May 2005, 128,000 batteries made by LG Chem of South Korea were replaced due to possible overheating issues. That recall followed an earlier warning covering approximately 28,000 Apple Powerbook G4s.

Apple also recalled batteries from its new 15-inch MacBook Pro notebooks just last month, but due to performance problems and not any safety concern.