Samsung has officially acknowledged that some units of the recently released Galaxy Note 7 have exploded and burst into flame while charging with 24 confirmed cases around the world.
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The latest development comes soon after reports regarding battery fires and explosions forced Samsung to delay the shipment of the Note 7.
Koh Dong-jin, president of Samsung’s mobile business, said customers who already bought Note 7s will be able to swap them for new smartphones, regardless of when they purchased them.
Strategy Analytics said the combined cost of the recall and lost sales would lop $5 billion off Samsung’s smartphone revenue this year and cut smartphone profit margin by 1.5 percent. There have been no reports of injuries related to the problem. Quality and customer safety are absolute priorities for Vodafone and therefore the launch of the Samsung Note 7 will be delayed in the UK.
The manufacturer plans to replace not only phones with faulty batteries sold to consumers, but also retailer inventories and units in transit.
“We acknowledge the inconvenience this may cause in the market but this is to ensure that Samsung continues to deliver the highest quality products to our customers, ” Samsung said in a statement. “No one wants to wake up at 1, 2 or 3 (in the morning) and find out your smartphone’s on fire”.
All affected customers will be notified about this issue and their options. Koh refused to name the supplier.
“There was a tiny problem in the manufacturing process so it was very hard to find out”, Koh told reporters at a news conference.
Update: In a statement to MobileSyrup, Samsung Canada states Note 7 owners can call into customer service for details on how to get a new Note 7.
It did not elaborate on any problems it may have found with the gadget, which was launched in South Korea and other markets on August 19.
She’s having second thoughts about buying another newly released device, especially after losing all her personal data stored in the destroyed Note 7, she said.
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According to Samsung, the phone has been launched in 10 countries so far but with different companies supplying the batteries.
