Chinese people visit the Samsung roadshow booth promoting their latest Galaxy Note 7 smartphone, outside a shopping mall in Beijing, Thursday, Sept. 1, 2016.
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The firm has said it aimed for the Note 7 to maintain strong sales momentum in the second half of the year against stiffening competition from the likes of Apple Inc, which is widely expected to release its latest iPhone next week.
Samsung Electronics Co Ltd will replace all Galaxy Note 7 smartphones equipped with fire-prone batteries and halt sales of the flagship product in 10 markets, a devastating blow for what had been a revival in the firm’s mobile business.
He apologized for causing inconvenience and concern to customers.
Samsung Galaxy Note7 is the latest Galaxy flagship from the Korean smartphone vendor.
Koh Dong-jin, president of Samsung’s mobile business, said Friday, that the company had confirmed 35 cases where the battery exploded while being charged.
The executive, who declined to comment on the number of phones needing replacement, said Samsung had sold 2.5 million of the premium devices so far. It estimated that about 24 out of 1 million units may have a faulty battery. Samsung Galaxy Note7 was launched globally on August 2 in NY and since then, reports started emerging about battery exploding while charging. “The last thing they want is for memes to be spreading on the internet associating the Samsung name with an exploding battery or injury”, IDC analyst Bryan Ma said.
“There was a tiny problem in the manufacturing process so it was very hard to find out”, Koh told reporters at a news conference.
“I can’t comment on exactly how much the cost will be, but it pains my heart that it will be such a big number”, Koh said. “Nevertheless, the reason we made this decision is because what is most important is customer safety”. Samsung has delayed shipments of Galaxy Note 7 smartphones in South Korea for quality c.
South Korean high school teacher Park Soo-Jung said she had rushed to buy the new phone, pre-ordering and then activating it on August 19, its official launch date.
Samsung had gambled that positive reviews for the new device, which features iris-reading technology, would lead to robust sales.
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Samsung shares fell Thursday on reports of problems with the Galaxy Note 7 battery but closed 0.6% higher Friday before the recall was confirmed.
