When Will The Galaxy Note 7 Go Back On Sale?

When Will The Galaxy Note 7 Go Back On Sale?

Although there were indications from the South Korean company that it would put its phablet back on sale this coming Wednesday in its home territory, that date has been pushed back by another week (reports Sammobile). The company believes that the return rate of existing smartphones will drop sharply if the handset is put back on sale alongside a marketing campaign to say that the handset is now safe.

The situation looks to be even bleaker in Europe. Chief Marketing Officer David Lowes has told the site that “we fully expect [the Galaxy Note 7] to be available everywhere by the end of November.” No specific date for the resumption of sales he’s been given beyond “before the end of the fourth quarter.” I suspect that as Samsung gains more control of the situation the old maxims of ‘under promise and over deliver’ are kicking in.

Samsung Galaxy Note 7 (Image: Samsung Press)

The question about the level of damage to Samsung is going to play out over the next few weeks and months. The critically acclaimed Galaxy Note 7 is arguably the best Android smartphone currently on the market, and was expected to be one of Samsung’s biggest selling handsets of the year. Before the voluntary recall was initiated, it was on course to reach 125 percent of the sales of last year’s Galaxy Note 5. Some analysts are now predicting sales to struggle to reach sixty percent of the total shipments of last year’s phablet.

As the Note 7 rolls out again, the new period of initial sales will provide the strongest indicator of the damage caused to Samsung’s Note brand. October will also see Samsung reveal its quarterly earnings for Q3 2016, which covers the reveal, launch, and recall of the phablet. The industry is expecting to see an eight percent fall in the South Korean’s operating profits.

Samsung Galaxy Note 7 (Image: Samsung Press)

source: www.forbes.com

More Than 1.6M Galaxy Note 7s Could Have Bad, Explosion-Prone Battery

More Than 1.6M Galaxy Note 7s Could Have Bad, Explosion-Prone Battery

The latest Note 7 to explode, this time in Australia. credit: reddit user Crushader

The news just keeps getting worse for Samsung, and owners of its latest flagship, the Galaxy Note 7. You already know about the Note 7′s global recall due to some devices bursting into flames, but the number of potentially affected devices, which Samsung have claimed was less than 0.01%, may actually be a bit higher.

Try 64.99% higher (or more).

Both the Wall Street Journal and Korea Hearald reported today that Samsung have dropped its in-house battery-maker, Samsung SDI , completely from future Note 7s productions, going instead with Chinese company ATL, which had already provided the battery for some Note 7s (most notably the China and Hong Kong variants, which explains why Samsung Hong Kong is continuing to sell the Note 7). The reason for the decision is, of course, that Samsung SDI was responsible for the faulty batteries that led to the explosive devices.

Now figures differ between both reports, but the WSJ is reporting that Samsung SDI provided the batteries to 65% of the 2.5 million Note 7 units already sold, while Korea Herald said the the number is closer to 70%. Even if we go with the lower figure, 65% of 2.5 million is still 1,625,000.

Throughout the weekend, most Note 7 owners on internet forums (such as XDA, Reddit, The Verge and Android Authority), at least from what I’ve seen, were pretty openly “meh” about the potential danger of a faulty Note 7. Many users said 35 cases (at the time) out of 2.5 million is far too tiny a number to stress about, and quite a few actually said they’re considering ignoring the exchange process altogether (the reason? “I don’t like setting up my phone again”).

But since then, two more explosions have occurred, in Australia and Taiwan, with the latter phone supposedly combusting when it wasn’t even charging. That plus the new reports that Samsung SDI provided batteries for 0ver 65% of the phones out there? Yikes.

We probably should have seen this coming. Samsung wouldn’t have announced a global recall, of every phone in the world (except China and Hong Kong, apparently), which will cost the company a reported $1 billion, if the number of affected phones were indeed just 0.01%. The reality is, potentially 1.6 million phones could have faulty batteries.

So, Note 7 owners, please, be careful with it when charging, and don’t be foolish enough to skip the global recall program.

To paraphrase Ben Affleck in a really bad movie this year, “if there’s even a 1% chance of [the Note 7] being a threat, we have to treat it as an absolute certainty.”

source: www.forbes.com