Ars Technica
Apple added a knowledge base article to its support website this weekend, announcing a worldwide "15-inch MacBook Pro Battery Exchange Program." The exchange program is for rechargable batteries that came with with 15-inch MacBook Pros sold between February 2006 and May 2006.
Apple is somewhat vague (as to be expected) in its reasoning for this recall
exchange:
We recently discovered that some 15-inch MacBook Pro batteries supplied to
Apple do not meet our high standards for battery performance. To give our users
the best experience possible, we will replace these batteries for customers
free of charge.
...however, some users believe that at least part of the reasoning for this is
from some recurring battery issue in MacBook Pros that is being grouped in with
many of the recent random shutdown complaints. When I took my MacBook Pro into
the Apple Store that fateful day just a couple of weeks ago, the Genius
determined that my random shutdowns were caused by a defective battery and
replaced my battery with a new one. Interestingly however, further investigation
reveals that my brand new battery still falls into the serial number range for
batteries that are being replaced by Apple, and so I have already applied for
(yet another) replacement: