Amid the revelation behind the reason for Galaxy Note 7 battery issue Samsung implied on Monday that its coming flagship Galaxy S smartphone may get postponed. The South Korean technology major promised their customer to amplify the safety of all their products and to investigate the root cause of fire in their previously launched Note 7 devices and which may lead to the delay in the upcoming smartphones.
After investigating the devices, the customer’s beloved top smartphone-making company said damaged batteries from two of their suppliers were blamed for product downfall and wiped $5.3 billion off its profit.
Samsung chief Koh Dong-jin said safety measures and changes were undertaken to avoid the same problem of “battery fire” in the future as the South Korean firm is ready to launch the Galaxy S8, which is the first handset after Note 7 collapse.
“The lessons of this incident are deeply reflected in our culture and process”, Koh told to reporters at a press conference. He then further said, “Samsung Electronics will be working hard to regain consumer trust”.
Koh said the Galaxy S8 would not be disclosed at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona which is beginning on Feb 27, the traditional forum for Galaxy S Series launches. At the conference, he did not talk about the launch of the handset but the analyst reveals that maybe by April the company started selling the handset. Galaxy Note 7 was a major setback for the company and investors suggested that Samsung need to win back its customers by convincing them.
Samsung’s position got down in the market after it declared the fire-prone Note 7 and reported that devices that are replacing also catching fire. More on that, on social media images of melted Samsung devices, are shared and because of this airlines restricted passengers on the use of Samsung devices on flights.
Samsung told on Monday that “it has not decided whether to reuse parts in the recovered Note 7 or resell any recalled phones.” A person who knows about this matter told Reuters that reselling some Note 7 repair phones was an option. The firm then added that it almost recovered 96% of 3.06 million Note 7 that were sold to customers.
Talking more about this investigation by internal experts listed out the problems with Note 7s’ hardware as well as both software. They said the batteries that were supplied by two suppliers have different manufacturing defects and faults that cause a short circuit.
Patrick Moorhead, President of a technology analyst and advisory firm Moor Insights and Strategy said” The odds that two different suppliers had an issue with the same phone is an extremely low likelihood and may signal we have reached an infection point in smartphone battery technology”.
Samsung did not enclose the name of suppliers but identified them as affiliates of Samsung SDI Co Ltd and China’s Amperex Technology Ltd (ATL). SDI said it would invest $129 million to upgrade product safety and will continue the supply of batteries for Samsung whereas ATL declined to share any thoughts.
Samsung said it accepted responsibility and will not take any legal action against them. Park Chul-wan, a former director of the Center for Advanced Batteries at the Korea Electronics Technology Institue said “The current situation is not largely different from that of the first recall when Samsung pointed the finger at battery defects”.
