Samsung’s episode with Note 7 is known to everyone now, thanks to DGCA and their regulations. Samsung recalled all the Note 7s sold around the world and promised to replace them with fresh batteries.
However, as would turn out to be Samsung’s nightmare, a replacement Note 7 caught fire on a Southwest flight 994 from Louisville to Baltimore. All the passengers and cabin crew were evacuated from the plane as the Note 7 burst into flames.
Samsung re-launched the Note 7 in South Korea a week back, and will be launching the new Note 7 in India today. However, such reports will hit the company very hard, more so when Samsung had claimed that the new batteries will not cause any more troubles.
In fact, this Note 7 had a green battery as well, and consumers trusted Samsung’s judgement on that, owing to the reputation of the brand. In spite of that, the newly purchased smartphone caught fire and that too on a flight.
The Verge’s article on this incident mentions, “Green said that he had powered down the phone as requested by the flight crew and put it in his pocket when it began smoking. He dropped it on the floor of the plane and a “thick grey-green angry smoke” was pouring out of the device. Green’s colleague went back onto the plane to retrieve some personal belongings and said that the phone had burned through the carpet and scorched the subfloor of the plane.”
However, the phone is not with Samsung yet, so the report cannot be claimed to be 100% true, but considering the fact that there is evidence, Samsung has get into the full swing to rectify their stand.
Is it doom for Samsung now?
What made this a big issue was that not a few, but more than 40 Note 7 smartphones exploded world-wide because of the battery problem. Samsung did try to normalize the situation and all was in favour of the company, until this happened.
Coming from large Korean manufacturer, of such high repute, such a blunder isn’t expected, at least not twice. This will definitely hamper Note 7 sales around the world, and create a bad name for its flagship series. The Note series is a wonderful set of phones, but will not be as attractive as before.
Samsung has done some irreparable damage to itself, and this will reflect in their quarterly earnings as well as market shares. Worst case scenario, Samsung will stop production of Note series, but we hope they give it some time and thought to launch a safe product.
Source: The Verge