The Galaxy Note 7 smartphone was recalled twice in an unprecedented consumer safety crisis.
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Samsung Electronics said Monday that faulty design caused Galaxy Note 7 batteries to overheat and catch fire but stressed that it took full responsibility for the debacle that analysts estimated could cost the company more than $5 billion.
Samsung reacted to the initial wave of explosion reports by expanding production of Note 7s equipped with batteries made by Hong Kong firm Amperex Technology.
“I deeply apologize to all of our customers”, Koh Dong-jin, president of Samsung’s mobile communications business, said at a news conference Monday. As far as the Note brand goes, it remains to be seen whether Samsung can win over skeptical customers, but it’s refreshing to see a company embrace its history, warts and all, and not use marketing smoke and mirrors to hide their past mistakes.
The electronics giant released the results of its investigations in Seoul, South Korea today, announcing that supplier “A” didn’t allow enough “pouch room” for the battery, causing it to short circuit and overheat. Samsung has created an infographic explaining its findings from the Note 7 investigation. While the defects from each of the two battery manufactures were different, each was sufficient to cause the batteries to heat and burst into flames.
In the batteries produced by its own company, Samsung shows graphics of “abnormal” positioning of the negative electrode in the top right-hand corner of the battery.
Faced with defective batteries, Samsung switched to a second battery supplier but these batteries also had a manufacturing defect.
Following what Samsung discovered during their investigation, the company pledged to enhance product safety and developed an 8-Point Battery Safety Check to avoid Note 7-like incidents. Future safety measures In the wake of the disaster, Samsung has introduced new quality assurance stages to prevent similar problems occurring in the future. This is also important to prove to its fans that all is well and that the Galaxy S8 handset does not carry any baggage from the Note 7 disaster.
Reports of Note 7 handsets catching fire spread on social media soon after their August launch.
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It was unclear to what extent the battery maker was responsible for those problems: Samsung said only that it had provided “targets” for the batteries.
