“In its rush to beat rival products to market, notably Apple’s new iPhone, Samsung Electronics has accelerated new phone launch cycles, but its haste is raising concerns that it fell short on quality testing,” Se Young Lee reports for Reuters. “Since last year, the South Korean firm, the world’s largest maker of smartphones, has brought forward the launch of its Galaxy S and Galaxy Note series models by roughly a month.”
“On Friday, two weeks after launch, Samsung recalled Galaxy Note 7 smartphones in 10 markets including South Korea and the United States after finding its batteries were prone to ignite, and halted sales of the 988,900 won device in those markets indefinitely,” Lee reports. “The recall looks set to hamstring a revival in Samsung’s mobile business just as Apple gears up to launch its new iPhones this month.”
Lee reports, “The scale of the unprecedented recall, which some analysts forecast will cost Samsung nearly $5 billion in revenue this year, follows a separate supply-chain management issue that led to disappointing sales of the Galaxy S6 series last year.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Haste makes waste, IP-thieving, trade dress-trampling dummies.
SEE ALSO:
Apple stock up, may benefit from beleaguered Samsung’s exploding Galaxy devices – September 2, 2016
Beleaguered Samsung to recall 2.5 million Galaxy Note 7 units over exploding batteries – September 2, 2016
Samsung may be forced to recall Galaxy Note 7 over exploding batteries – September 1, 2016
Samsung halts Galaxy Note 7 shipments due to battery explosions – August 31, 2016
Ben Bajarin: ‘Samsung will be out of the smartphone business within five years’ – November 2, 2015
Apple’s iPhone can soon reap 100 percent of world’s smartphone profits – November 17, 2015
Apple’s iPhone owns 94% of smartphone industry’s profits – November 16, 2015
Poor man’s iPhone: Android on the decline – February 26, 2015
Study: iPhone users are smarter and richer than those who settle for Android phones – January 22, 2015
Why Android users can’t have the nicest things – January 5, 2015
iPhone users earn significantly more than those who settle for Android phones – October 8, 2014
Yet more proof that Android is for poor people – June 27, 2014
More proof that Android is for poor people – May 13, 2014
Android users poorer, shorter, unhealthier, less educated, far less charitable than Apple iPhone users – November 13, 2013
IDC data shows two thirds of Android’s 81% smartphone share are cheap junk phones – November 13, 2013
CIRP: Apple iPhone users are younger, richer, and better educated than those who settle for Samsung knockoff phones – August 19, 2013
Explosive story. More popcorn please….. Meanwhile Gaagle scraps its modular mobile phone initiative. Steady as she goes AAPL long. Here we GO!
While I can’t pretend to be sorry for Samsung, I am sorry for it’s customers having to deal with this dangerous situation.
It just goes to show you how one issue can derail a product – one issue out of many thousands of potential failures in the design, fabrication/sourcing, assembly, software, etc. chain. We do not want to see Apple in the same situation in the future…quality and user experience trump schedule every time. Don’t lose sight of that, Apple. There is much more to be lost than there is to be gained. A reputation that is built over years and decades can be quickly lost due to one poor decision.
sorry… should not be an apostrophe in this usage of “its”
Poor Scamdung. Life just isn’t fair sometimes.
Just revealed…Samsung is granted a patent on exploding batteries. They reduce the product refresh cycle and self-recycle at the same time!
That was wicked! Hilariously so.
Atones for a myriad of past priggish posts.
In my humble opinion, the world needs more so-called priggishness and less shoot-from-the-hip, kiss-my-ass, you-missed-my-point ramblings. Just for the sake of balance, mind—impressionable young internet travellers can’t have an idea of the mental dangers here, or be able to see through our amoral, irresponsible flippancy.
Samsung is still trying to grab “what used to be.” No feature/s of smartphones today are enough to get a major proportion of users to run out and buy a new phone.
Smartphones today are “ho-hum” with no particular whiz bang like back in 2007 and up to maybe 2010 or so.
We are in the long term evolution phase where smartphones are just like cars and most people expect to keep a phone 3-4 years.
Samsungs management strategy must change to the long term view. Apple’s team has switched to fewer changes over longer cycles in laptops and it seems so in iPhones.
Really? Before smartphones I got a new cellphone every two years or so, and today, I use my iPhone exponentially more than I ever used a traditional cellphone or home computer. Matter of fact, two years is too long to use the same smartphone because it’s constantly going in and out of pockets/purses, it falls, it gets whacked, it’s prodded, and it is used more. If Apple slows the cycle to three or four years then they will lose an exponential amount of customers to the “next toy”. People need a new pocket computer every year or two, but want to be happy with the purchase. The Note 7 appeared to be a worthy contender until cutting edge without proper testing turned into an explosive issue.
A $5B loss could be sandbagging, especially if the airlines decide to ban all Samsung phones on planes.
Ooowww. Hadn’t thought of banning Samsung phones on planes! The FAA has the power.
One just burned in a Perth hotel. Are hotels going to ban Samsung phones?
Great point you raised.
Doubt such a ban would single out just one brand.. Most likely any cellphone using the same chemistry will be banned also if implemented.
In the “long-term evolution” phase u speak of, basic things like safety, reliability, quality, and security will play increasingly important roles in why people buy what they buy. This bodes very well for Apple. And, apparently, it bodes poorly for Samsung.
In addition, people will increasingly scrutinize finer points of differentiation. This also bodes well for Apple. One example, I take a lot of snapshots with my iPhone 6S Plus on hiking, biking, and backpack trips, and also in general. My friends are Very Impressed with the quality of all these photos. And the battery runs like a champ.
Samsung will no doubt sue Apple for the problem. It was probably Apples design (one that was shelved) 7 years ago..
Who the hell would pay 988,900 won for a piece of sh!t exploding phone?
“analysts forecast will cost Samsung nearly $5 billion in revenue this year”
This is one cost Samsung can not evade in the US courts.
I made it as far as “Beleaguered Samsung blows” and moved on.