“Heated meetings, sacrificed holidays and teams monitoring social media round-the-clock to track whether there have been any new smartphone fires: Samsung Electronics is still desperately trying to limit the damage of a record global recall announced more than a month ago,” Se Young Lee reports for Reuters. “Samsung’s hopes of finally getting ahead of the crisis took a knock on Wednesday. A replacement model began smoking inside a U.S. plane on Wednesday, the family that owns it said, prompting fresh investigations by safety regulators.”
“Some of the toughest criticism leveled at Samsung has been over its fumbling of the recall,” Lee reports. “It warned affected users to immediately turn off their phones only after the same warning was issued by the U.S. consumer protection agency. The regulator criticized Samsung for not following proper recall procedures. Some consumers also complained about the replacement phones, either saying they lose power too quickly or run too hot.”
“Samsung employees say the recall has dominated internal meetings since the Sept. 2 announcement, whether it be efforts to get the recalled phones off the streets or deal with a continued stream of claims and reports of damages or problems,” Lee reports. “Missed sales and recall expenses could cost Samsung nearly $5 billion this year, analysts say. The risk to its brand is as yet unquantifiable.”
Let’s hope the risk to its brand is excessively VERY quantifiable and long lasting. Seeing as how SamSplode would take advantage of any Apple disaster and harp on it forever I see no reason the Seoul Sploder experts should be shown any mercy.
It was only real in as much as phones generally lost signal in similar circumstances rather than exclusively in iPhones as they tried to play it. That said the expectation for iPhones is that such issues should be towards the lower end of an general issue in that case it was probably worse than average and someone lost their job over it.
Interesting btw that the bend gate issue just happened to be brought up again of late ‘coincidentally’ with the Samsung disaster. In that case of course it was found that amongst metal phones practically all (including Samsung phones but excluding a Motorola heavyweight model) were rather worse in this regard than the Apple model.
At risk of sounding like a whiny iPhone owner, I’m not sure I see the humor in the plane crash scenarios.
As a guy who is flying all the time, their phones legitimately worry me.
I thought the car charging photos you posted were funny as you can get out of a car if it catches fire, you can’t get out of a plane if the same thing happens and people likely die.
Not sure why these phones are even allowed on board.
It’s a joke son, steeped in a little black humor. The whole point of it or cautionary tale is we DON’T wish to see innocents hurt, so choose wisely. (Would it help if it was drawn like a cartoon?)
I was always skeptical of the need for flight mode, since if the threat was so great why risk someone not playing by the rules? So now I’m wondering why Samdung phones aren’t confiscated on sight.
The SCARY thing is: even if you confiscate them, what do you do with them? According to the news report, the replacement phone was switched off when it started smoking.
They’re stuck being Samsung. They could have changed for the better! They didn’t. The dung made contact with the rotating spew blades. Their reputation is now wrecked, at least within the phone biz. Well deserved.
I’ve heard of company’s having to put out symbolic fires before but not literal ones like SamSplode has to. Ticking time bomb feature turns out was not a good idea in a portable device, leading to explosive returns begetting yet more explosive replacements. Can’t a slavish copier catch a break not spontaneously bursting into flame? No? Oh.
“whether it be efforts to get the recalled phones off the streets or deal with a continued stream of claims and reports of damages or problems”
this is sickening.
they are weighing which is LESS COSTLY: a recall or paying damages to people affected, they are not basing it on PUBLIC SAFETY (i.e make the right decision, issue the recall as people had been hurt and eat the losses).
see how Samsung is approaching this vs Apple’s committed fight against backdoors in phones which would jeopardize public safety (as hackers etc would get in) in spite of the high cost to it (relentless stupid press and govt. attacks to the company etc).
Right now its just precaution, but when a smart ass puts one in the luggage compartment who is going to detect it before its gets out of hand. Who is going to stop the fire in Mid air. Its no Joke. We know now that these things burns even when switched off. Get it off the World.
The devices should be treated as bombs and stopped at security. Anybody trying to bring a Samsung exploding device through security should be considered a terrorist.
If a passenger tries to conceal a Samsung exploding device in their luggage then they should receive at least ten years in prison.
Even I have to admit that Windows 7 was the least-worst version Microsoft ever released. Vista before it, and Win8 and Win10 after, were absolute crap.
The Samsung folks will put a spin to it, never worry. If nothing else, they’ll add the replacements to their shipments numbers, claiming a huge jump in market share.
@MDN’s take:
Usually I like the comparisons left/right a lot, but this time I find the right picture distasteful. Instead of a (presumably) airplane crash with many casualties, a grounded airplane would have done.
Meet the new Sambomb Galaxy Fire Phone!
And “The risk to its brand is as yet unquantifiable.” …
Only if you are deaf, dumb and bling.
Samsung has shot themselves in the head.
Sorry, “bling” should be blind.
Let’s be real now. If Samsung gives you a new phone, are you REALLY going to trust it?
Are you really going to leave it charging in your home overnight?
Are you going to give it to your kid to take to school?
Let’s hope the risk to its brand is excessively VERY quantifiable and long lasting. Seeing as how SamSplode would take advantage of any Apple disaster and harp on it forever I see no reason the Seoul Sploder experts should be shown any mercy.
Take advantage? They manufacture Apple disasters out of thin air with their PR machine, like antenna-gate or bend-gate. These guys have no scruples.
Antennae gate was real not made up!
Samsung needs to stick to what they do well, TVs, memory and SSD drives. Give up on trying to compete with Apple.
It was only real in as much as phones generally lost signal in similar circumstances rather than exclusively in iPhones as they tried to play it. That said the expectation for iPhones is that such issues should be towards the lower end of an general issue in that case it was probably worse than average and someone lost their job over it.
Interesting btw that the bend gate issue just happened to be brought up again of late ‘coincidentally’ with the Samsung disaster. In that case of course it was found that amongst metal phones practically all (including Samsung phones but excluding a Motorola heavyweight model) were rather worse in this regard than the Apple model.
At risk of sounding like a whiny iPhone owner, I’m not sure I see the humor in the plane crash scenarios.
As a guy who is flying all the time, their phones legitimately worry me.
I thought the car charging photos you posted were funny as you can get out of a car if it catches fire, you can’t get out of a plane if the same thing happens and people likely die.
Not sure why these phones are even allowed on board.
It’s a joke son, steeped in a little black humor. The whole point of it or cautionary tale is we DON’T wish to see innocents hurt, so choose wisely. (Would it help if it was drawn like a cartoon?)
I was always skeptical of the need for flight mode, since if the threat was so great why risk someone not playing by the rules? So now I’m wondering why Samdung phones aren’t confiscated on sight.
The ScamSplod💣Not💣7 should be classified as a munition, it would simplify banning it on public transportation. 🖖😀⌚️
The SCARY thing is: even if you confiscate them, what do you do with them? According to the news report, the replacement phone was switched off when it started smoking.
No risk, The MDN take is completely tasteless and unprofessional, but hey this is MDN.
When a company’s REPLACEMENT products are still exploding, you know that company is thoroughly F—ed. Let’s celebrate that it’s Samsung. 🤕 💊💊💊
🍻🍾👏💥🔥🤖🎶🍾🍾📉📉📉🎊🎋🎉🎊🎉👶👼🦄🙃
Right?!
What’s wrong with them?
They’re stuck being Samsung. They could have changed for the better! They didn’t. The dung made contact with the rotating spew blades. Their reputation is now wrecked, at least within the phone biz. Well deserved.
I wish they had chosen their path more wisely.
Overhead at a Samsung marketing meeting during a discussion of what their spokesman should say to spin the controversy:
– Our phones will burn up the competition
– Samsung phones are setting the market on fire
– The Galaxy phones will light a fire under you
Sorry, I couldn’t resist.
BTW, Samsung, Ms. Karma, she is a bitch.
When you rush technology (ScamScum Note/Galaxy 7 Splode 💣) to market, you have to deal with Murphy:
Murphy’s Law
Nothing is as easy as it looks.
Everything takes longer than you expect.
If anything can go wrong, it will.
At the worst possible time.
🖖😀⌚️
Sales of samsung phones are literally spreading like fire .
Returns of Samsung phones …
I’ve heard of company’s having to put out symbolic fires before but not literal ones like SamSplode has to. Ticking time bomb feature turns out was not a good idea in a portable device, leading to explosive returns begetting yet more explosive replacements. Can’t a slavish copier catch a break not spontaneously bursting into flame? No? Oh.
“whether it be efforts to get the recalled phones off the streets or deal with a continued stream of claims and reports of damages or problems”
this is sickening.
they are weighing which is LESS COSTLY: a recall or paying damages to people affected, they are not basing it on PUBLIC SAFETY (i.e make the right decision, issue the recall as people had been hurt and eat the losses).
see how Samsung is approaching this vs Apple’s committed fight against backdoors in phones which would jeopardize public safety (as hackers etc would get in) in spite of the high cost to it (relentless stupid press and govt. attacks to the company etc).
Right now its just precaution, but when a smart ass puts one in the luggage compartment who is going to detect it before its gets out of hand. Who is going to stop the fire in Mid air. Its no Joke. We know now that these things burns even when switched off. Get it off the World.
The devices should be treated as bombs and stopped at security. Anybody trying to bring a Samsung exploding device through security should be considered a terrorist.
If a passenger tries to conceal a Samsung exploding device in their luggage then they should receive at least ten years in prison.
Note 7
Windows 7
Nah, couldn’t be…
Even I have to admit that Windows 7 was the least-worst version Microsoft ever released. Vista before it, and Win8 and Win10 after, were absolute crap.
“Airplane Mode” for a Samsung phone is to place it in the confiscation box, along with the box cutters.
The Samsung folks will put a spin to it, never worry. If nothing else, they’ll add the replacements to their shipments numbers, claiming a huge jump in market share.
@MDN’s take:
Usually I like the comparisons left/right a lot, but this time I find the right picture distasteful. Instead of a (presumably) airplane crash with many casualties, a grounded airplane would have done.
MDN comment: and a jet full of Samsung Android phone users.
Should be: and a jet with just one Samsung Android phone user
Use a fire extinguisher.