“In a potentially damaging episode, Samsung announced on Friday that it would recall its Galaxy Note 7 model after discovering a flaw in the battery cell that could result in fires,” Paul Mozur and Su-Hyun Lee report for The New York Times. “The company will replace 2.5 million phones sent to stores and consumers, in one of the industry’s largest recalls.”
“The recall puts Samsung, which has been trying to match the success of the Apple iPhone, in a precarious position,” Mozur and Lee report. “Battery fires threaten to undermine Samsung’s efforts, giving an edge to Apple. The recall comes just days before Apple is expected to unveil the latest version of its iPhone.”
“Along with the expense of fixing the phones, Samsung could face lost sales if consumers grow wary of its products. Samsung said it expected that manufacturing replacement phones would take two weeks. Consumers who have already bought the phones will receive replacements before new phones go on sale, the company said. Samsung did not indicate the cost of the recall,” Mozur and Lee report. “The recall is a major blow to Samsung.”
“The company faces pressures across its product line, with Apple on the high end and new Chinese brands on the lower end,” Mozur and Lee report. “Apple is set to show off its latest iPhone on Sept. 7. With the new iPhone, Apple is expected to make major upgrades to both the hardware and software, as it generally does every two years.”
I don’t delight in this news, it’s a worry that many people may get hurt. Samsung have obviously done the right thing by quickly acknowledging the issue and recalling the device, but they have not said whether customers should continue using/charging their new phones in the meantime, which seems dangerous to me.
Since its release, samdung only able to sell 2.5 million? And smartphone marketing consultants, analysts keep saying samdung is the no.1 smartphone seller? Now its very very obvious that these analyst consutants are fuc**ng WRONG.
In the source article the units sold in China had a different supplier for the battery module and are not affected. So you’ll have to add the quantity shipped in China to get closer to the ‘true’ total of units shipped out or sold.
Considering it has not been released in the UK till yesterday, been on pre-order for about a month and actually in consumers hands for almost 2 weeks elsewhere, 2.5 million units (plus unit count from China) seems pretty impressive to me.
In the same period of time Apple will sell upwards of 15 million iPhones. And the 2.5 million number isn’t the number sold, since Samsung does not share that data. That’s the total number of units they have SHIPPED to retailers, which is not the same as sales, stop thinking it is. So, no that’s not an impressive number of devices to get to customers, but it is a massive amount of devices affected by an issue.
Considering that less than 40 units have been reported, recalling 2.5 million that are possibly affected with the same battery is quite notable in credit to Samsung considering the safety of their devices and taking action to remedy the problem. Apple having way more funds than Samsung does not seem so proactive to problems with their own devices, rather giving an excuse first then possibly apologizing or acting later.
Other than the fact the “issues” with Apple devices are blown completely out of proportion, misrepresented, falsified, and repeated ad Naseum until people think they’re true. Apple fixes the affected products, and keeps selling them because they wouldn’t release something with a flaw like that. The simple fact that Samsung has to recall that many devices means that a higher than 1-3% of them likely are defective (which is considered a normal/good rma rate for a product) you only do a massive recall if it’s systemic, and it looks like that’s the case here. Since they have to “remanufactur” devices with a different battery connector. This is an actual problem, that could kill people…. It explodes/catches on fire. it is not the same as the signal strength indicators algorithm being wrong, and people not understand cellular attenuation, or people intentionally bending devices with more force than any normal human would put on a device, or a laptop battery production issue that affected every manufacturer on the planet. This is simply a lack of quality control and shouldn’t happen. Don’t make excuses for a company that blatantly steals designs and makes their devices look as similar as possible to apple’s to trick people into buying them.
Every Apple “scandal” you’ve ever heard is most likely fud. The only one that I remember actually being true is the laptop battery issue a few years ago (which effected everybody), and the video card issue in the one generation of 15″ unibody MacBook Pro. But that didn’t necessitate a recall because it affected less than 1 in 10,000 devices and was not systemic. Now this phone problem with the note obviously affects a significant percentage or no recall would be put in place, they would simply replace the unit with another one, but they have to REMANUFACTURE the entire device for a replacement…. This is a real problem.
They deserve this… Karma is a bitch. And I am STILL waiting for the outcry from everyone on the tech channels. Hopefully all of the assholes who got paid to promote this piece of shit come to their senses and inform their viewers.
Antenna gate? You are holding it wrong!
Light Leaks? Within spec.
Bend gate? Don’t grab it.
Exploding iPhones? You are charging it wrong.
Touch Disease? RECALL COMING!!! No I lied… You got screwed by Smashpple.
Ok, you’re a troll but I’m going to feed you anyway:
Atennagate: not a real thing, the signal strength algorithm was incorrect and Steve jobs himself admitted that and it was fixed. Secondly, people were holding it wrong… In order to get the iPhone 4 prior to algorithm adjustment to even do it, you had to wedge the thing into your palm and cover up all 3 ateanna bands. But blown completely out of proportion, and didn’t necessitate a recall.
Light leaks: not a real thing. Affected ~31 devices, and anyone who was concerned about it got a new phone for free. But nothing had to be remanufactured or recalled, because again, not a real thing.
Bend gate: not a real thing. A guy makes a video on YouTube deliberately applying too much force to the product, an amount of force by the way, which bent every other phone released that year including the Galaxy s5. Apple used much stronger aluminum in the 6s just to eliminate people even trying it this time. But it wasn’t a real thing, again no recall necessary.
Exploding phones: 2 iPhone 4’s in China caught fire because they were using unlicensed cheap chargers! Using real chargers doesn’t cause that problem.
Touch disease: not a real thing. Yes, many repair shops say they’ve seen it, but the Apple Store replaces the unit for free, and it is not something that people can reproduce effectively enough to cause a big kerfuffle. So? Not a thing.
Every iPhone supposedly has some massive problem, except they don’t, and since they’re made up “scandals” they die pretty quickly now since our customer base is so much bigger. This isn’t like the old days when a zombie Apple lie wouldn’t die.
The Samsung IED.
Bahh… Only 2.5 millions. I thought it was more like 25 millions…
Not even worth talking about it.
Apple is prepping a recall that will hit about 20 millions of iPhone 6/6+…
Apple is doomed now… At last! ROFL!
It was a joke guys.
Some readers are easily offended.
That said, it is more like macgadgetfreek said
If that would’ve happen to Apple, they would’ve been doomed!!
Samsung’s next phone to be named Quasar (“exploding” Galaxy).
At a certain point, is it ok to feel sorry for them?
nah…let’s spike the football!
if it was Apple this would be a top story…”explode-gate”
Samsung suffered from premature releasification. Not surprising coming from a bunch of jerk-offs.
Discharge-gate,
Kingdomcome-gate,
Detonate-gate
Smithereens-gate,
Combustion-gate,
Rupture-gate,
Boom-gate,
Meltdown-gate
Incinerate-gate
Lotta difference between being #1 and “cheaper.”
I’ve been telling you. Samsung is a POS! 😛
I don’t delight in this news, it’s a worry that many people may get hurt. Samsung have obviously done the right thing by quickly acknowledging the issue and recalling the device, but they have not said whether customers should continue using/charging their new phones in the meantime, which seems dangerous to me.
Since its release, samdung only able to sell 2.5 million? And smartphone marketing consultants, analysts keep saying samdung is the no.1 smartphone seller? Now its very very obvious that these analyst consutants are fuc**ng WRONG.
In the source article the units sold in China had a different supplier for the battery module and are not affected. So you’ll have to add the quantity shipped in China to get closer to the ‘true’ total of units shipped out or sold.
Considering it has not been released in the UK till yesterday, been on pre-order for about a month and actually in consumers hands for almost 2 weeks elsewhere, 2.5 million units (plus unit count from China) seems pretty impressive to me.
In the same period of time Apple will sell upwards of 15 million iPhones. And the 2.5 million number isn’t the number sold, since Samsung does not share that data. That’s the total number of units they have SHIPPED to retailers, which is not the same as sales, stop thinking it is. So, no that’s not an impressive number of devices to get to customers, but it is a massive amount of devices affected by an issue.
Considering that less than 40 units have been reported, recalling 2.5 million that are possibly affected with the same battery is quite notable in credit to Samsung considering the safety of their devices and taking action to remedy the problem. Apple having way more funds than Samsung does not seem so proactive to problems with their own devices, rather giving an excuse first then possibly apologizing or acting later.
Other than the fact the “issues” with Apple devices are blown completely out of proportion, misrepresented, falsified, and repeated ad Naseum until people think they’re true. Apple fixes the affected products, and keeps selling them because they wouldn’t release something with a flaw like that. The simple fact that Samsung has to recall that many devices means that a higher than 1-3% of them likely are defective (which is considered a normal/good rma rate for a product) you only do a massive recall if it’s systemic, and it looks like that’s the case here. Since they have to “remanufactur” devices with a different battery connector. This is an actual problem, that could kill people…. It explodes/catches on fire. it is not the same as the signal strength indicators algorithm being wrong, and people not understand cellular attenuation, or people intentionally bending devices with more force than any normal human would put on a device, or a laptop battery production issue that affected every manufacturer on the planet. This is simply a lack of quality control and shouldn’t happen. Don’t make excuses for a company that blatantly steals designs and makes their devices look as similar as possible to apple’s to trick people into buying them.
Every Apple “scandal” you’ve ever heard is most likely fud. The only one that I remember actually being true is the laptop battery issue a few years ago (which effected everybody), and the video card issue in the one generation of 15″ unibody MacBook Pro. But that didn’t necessitate a recall because it affected less than 1 in 10,000 devices and was not systemic. Now this phone problem with the note obviously affects a significant percentage or no recall would be put in place, they would simply replace the unit with another one, but they have to REMANUFACTURE the entire device for a replacement…. This is a real problem.
They deserve this… Karma is a bitch. And I am STILL waiting for the outcry from everyone on the tech channels. Hopefully all of the assholes who got paid to promote this piece of shit come to their senses and inform their viewers.
There will be little, if any, outcry. Only Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft merit the “outcry” label according to Jouranalism 2001.
Samsung has balls. Apple not so much.
Antenna gate? You are holding it wrong!
Light Leaks? Within spec.
Bend gate? Don’t grab it.
Exploding iPhones? You are charging it wrong.
Touch Disease? RECALL COMING!!! No I lied… You got screwed by Smashpple.
Ok, you’re a troll but I’m going to feed you anyway:
Atennagate: not a real thing, the signal strength algorithm was incorrect and Steve jobs himself admitted that and it was fixed. Secondly, people were holding it wrong… In order to get the iPhone 4 prior to algorithm adjustment to even do it, you had to wedge the thing into your palm and cover up all 3 ateanna bands. But blown completely out of proportion, and didn’t necessitate a recall.
Light leaks: not a real thing. Affected ~31 devices, and anyone who was concerned about it got a new phone for free. But nothing had to be remanufactured or recalled, because again, not a real thing.
Bend gate: not a real thing. A guy makes a video on YouTube deliberately applying too much force to the product, an amount of force by the way, which bent every other phone released that year including the Galaxy s5. Apple used much stronger aluminum in the 6s just to eliminate people even trying it this time. But it wasn’t a real thing, again no recall necessary.
Exploding phones: 2 iPhone 4’s in China caught fire because they were using unlicensed cheap chargers! Using real chargers doesn’t cause that problem.
Touch disease: not a real thing. Yes, many repair shops say they’ve seen it, but the Apple Store replaces the unit for free, and it is not something that people can reproduce effectively enough to cause a big kerfuffle. So? Not a thing.
Every iPhone supposedly has some massive problem, except they don’t, and since they’re made up “scandals” they die pretty quickly now since our customer base is so much bigger. This isn’t like the old days when a zombie Apple lie wouldn’t die.
Karma?
Like the prodigal son, you know the ‘fall’ and relatively quick and dramatic recall may end up making Samsung look good in the public’s eye.