“On recommendation from the FAA all Air New Zealand customers carrying Samsung Galaxy Note 7 devices must ensure that they are carried in the cabin only and not turned on or charged while onboard any Air New Zealand service”, an airline spokeswoman said.
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“I think that’s a smart safety move”, said Samsung Galaxy owner Noha Aljawhary when she learned of the recall and the FAA warning.
Around 2.5 million devices worldwide will be recalled, with Samsung offering to replace them.
The South Korean tech giant has said “there were 35 instances of Note 7s catching fire or exploding”. This came a few days after a Note 7 users in Australia claimed that his phone caught fire when he was in a hotel and the destroyed the hotel room, resulting in damages worth almost $1400 (around Rs 93,000). Samsung claimed that the number of incidents was low 35 globally as of September 1st and nobody appears to have been injured so far by a malfunctioning device.
But at the same time, it is also clear that the Note 7 issues hint at some sort of breakdown or failure in Samsung’s quality control process. Those reactions are rare, and lithium batteries power millions of devices – usually with no safety issues. Although it has now acknowledged the issues. That said, manufacturers have been doing batteries for years, even decades, so it’s puzzling that this would happen on a very high-profile device.
There had been reports of the devices exploding during or after charging, although no incidents have been reported on a plane. The company had opened the pre-orders when it had launched the phone earlier on August 11. Here is what Samsung India has said about its “gesture of gratitude”.
In other markets (including India), where the sale of the Galaxy Note7 has been delayed, the company, as a goodwill gesture, is offering free Gear VR head set (Rs. 7,290) along with exclusive Oculus media content voucher worth Rs. 3,300.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 controversy has come a long way from just being a rumor to actually being a big deal to other industries.
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Samsung has also offered to refund the pre-booking amount, on request from the customers.
