USA media that were inundated with criticism after flawed Galaxy Note 7 devices that exploded or caught fire began to turn soft to Samsung Electronics Co.
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Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 crisis may have been the result of internal pressure to beat Apple’s iPhone 7.
Chinese online financial magazine Caixin cited an internet user’s report that their Note 7 phone had caught fire in what appeared to be the first report in China of a fire involving the handset. The man said that the Samsung phone started to heat up and vibrate late Saturday night, then exploded and emitted black smoke.
Samsung attributed the fire to “external heating” rather than battery problems after testing the broken models, the company said in a statement. But on Monday, Samsung and its supplier Amperex Technology said they found no evidence of a link between its batteries and the fires. The company traced the problem to a battery manufacturing error and says only a small percentage of phones were actually affected.
A desire to significantly outperform the Apple iPhone 7 could have inadvertently led to a global recall of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7, according to a new report.
The move is notable for Samsung, but still does not go as far as a government-mandated recall, as has happened in the U.S., where the Consumer Product Safety Commission has ordered the firm to recall all devices.
Samsung has tipped faulty batteries as the cause for combustion cases outside of China.
According to Recode, only 130,000 Note 7 units have been returned through Samsung’s exchange program, even though 1 million units were reportedly sold.
It remains to be seen if the brand damage to Samsung among Chinese consumers will be lasting.
In its initial announcement on September 2, Samsung did not say whether consumers could continue to use the phones without danger.
In addition to the exchange programme, Samsung has introduced new safety measures – including a battery software update for current pre-orders that limits the battery charge to 60%. Monday is the deadline.
While Samsung may be resuming sales of the recalled Galaxy Note7 in its home country of South Korea as soon as next week – September 28 – it will be a full month before American consumers can purchase the replacement handsets.
McDonald reported from Beijing.
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