Samsung halts Galaxy Note 7 sales and issues fire warning
Author : Alistair Hookway, EPDT
11 October 2016
Samsung has stopped all sales of its Galaxy Note 7 and urged all current users to turn the smartphone off whilst a thorough investigation is conducted.
In September, the South Korean technology company recalled over 2 million Galaxy Note 7 devices as a result of widespread reports about its batteries exploding. The latest development sees batteries actually catching fire as well, causing evacuations of flights and numerous house fires.
A Samsung statement said “Samsung will ask all carrier and retail partners globally to stop sales and exchanges of the Galaxy Note7 while the investigation is taking place”. Having replaced many faulty devices with new devices, it has been reported that even these replacement devices are running into battery related problems.
“Consumers with either an original Galaxy Note7 or replacement Galaxy Note7 device should power down and stop using the device and take advantage of the remedies available” the release from Samsung continued.
The troubles that Samsung is facing have come at a particularly bad time for the smartphone giant, with many competitors announcing or releasing their own high-end smartphones. Apple’s iPhone 7 was released in mid-September and Google announced its own competition, the Pixel, in early October.
The desire for increased battery length and capacity has become a major selling point for smartphones. The Lithium-Ion batteries have been made increasingly smaller, efficient, and faster and it is thought that the collision of positive and negative electrodes has caused overheating or short circuiting in the Note 7.
Samsung has said the recall will affect 2.5 million devices, dealing unfathomable amounts of damage to not just Samsung’s market share and stocks, but also its brand image, a crucial aspect in its rivalry with Apple.
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