Samsung suspends production of Galaxy Note 7 as replacement handsets catch fire

[midian182]

It was starting to look as if things were turning around for Samsung. Restructuring proposals from activist investor Elliott Management and the expectation that it would beat Q3 profit estimates saw shares in the company jump 5 percent last week. But today the Note 7 debacle reached its lowest point: following reports that several of the replacement handsets have caught fire, Samsung is “temporarily pausing” production of the smartphone.

Early last month, Samsung said it would replace all Note 7s after it was discovered a faulty battery was causing the device to overheat and burst into flames. 90 percent of those who returned their handsets chose to receive a new Note 7, rather than a refund or similar smartphone.

On October 5, Brian Green was onboard Southwest Airlines flight 944 with his replacement Galaxy Note 7. With the battery at 80 percent capacity, he powered down the phone and placed it in his pocket when it began smoking. The aircraft was evacuated and the flight canceled.

More reports of replacement Note 7s catching fire have arrived recently, including incidents in Virginia and Kentucky, the latter of which Samsung knew about but didn’t say anything, according to The Verge.

In response to the defective replacement phones, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Australian carrier Telstra said they would suspend all sales and exchanges of Note 7s. Sources say Verizon has joined the other carriers in scrapping sales and replacements until Samsung and the Consumer Product Safety Commission carry out their investigations.

Samsung has now decided to temporarily stop production of the Note 7 while it attempts to discover why the replacement devices have the same dangerous faults as the originals.

The news is a disaster for Samsung, and could ultimately result in a worst-case scenario where the Galaxy Note 7 is pulled from the market altogether. Not surprisingly, the company’s shares have fallen almost 5 percent.

Last week it looked as if the Korean firm would be able to weather the storm caused by the Note 7 saga, now it seems the handset could be more of a disaster than initially thought for Samsung.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/66610-samsung-pauses-production-galaxy-note-7-after-replacement.html

 

[Mister_K]

If shares fall more it will be a good time to buy I guess...

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

These things happen, and considering it's extortionate price you don't want the thing burning a hole in your favourite pants pocket (twice) right after it cremated your wallet just to own one.

 

[Reehahs]

May be they should release a Galaxy Note 6.

 

[Uncle Al]

Unless I heard wrong, the same battery is being used in a number of other phones without incident. If that is true, the main issue is the phone itself, not the battery. One would think that during testing of the phone they should have identified over voltage and failures to throttle the power use so this would not happen. It is starting to look like Samsung simply replaced a batch of batteries and hoped for the best ... might have looked good for the bottom line, but the absence of a real engineering approach and really cooked their goose! (My apologies to all geese that may have been offended by these remarks).

 

[alabama man]

After all this they should focus on note 8 as no one will buy note 7 anymore, maybe scrap the whole note lineup. Maybe next time they will do more testing but as a owner of many dead samsung products I'm not keeping my hopes up. If they focus more on quality in the future I might actually by one of their products some day.

 

[amstech]

No doubt Samsung cheaped out here, and this coming from a S4, S5 and now S6 owner.

 

[EClyde]

Bummer Man

 

[MonsterZero]

This really sucks, other than the battery, the note 7 is an amazing phone.

 

[Igrecman]

This company has been using cheap parts for years
Remember this? https://topclassactions.com/lawsuit...samsung-tv-capacitor-class-action-settlement/

 

[MonsterZero]

This company has been using cheap parts for years
Remember this? https://topclassactions.com/lawsuit...samsung-tv-capacitor-class-action-settlement/

I've had a samsung products for years, no problems.

 

[petert]

This company has been using cheap parts for years
Remember this? https://topclassactions.com/lawsuit...samsung-tv-capacitor-class-action-settlement/

Every one uses cheap parts, including, Dell, Apple and others. Apple just has been caught these days that they weren't using sapphire like they claim in their lenses but sapphire laminate which is not as sturdy as Apple claims.

 

[G0DofPaiN]

Why is there so much fuss about this? Maybe Note7 was designed to be a burner phone.

 

[Zoner1501]

Why is there so much fuss about this? Maybe Note7 was designed to be a burner phone.

That's what happens when you ask your designers to create this years hottest phone.

 

[VitalyT]

Note 8 will be nuclear.

 

[Techstar]

Solar

 

[Raoul Duke]

They should skip 8 and go to Note 9.

 

[Techstar]

Or follow MS and skip 9 and jump to 10. I never liked the note versions of their phones to be honest.

 

[Kenrick]

This phone is over. Never make a phone more valuable than your life or your family. Resale value would be below average. Only people who are not informed about this issue would buy a phone like this. Better change to a new phone. HTC and Google are best alternative out there.

 

[EClyde]

I'm so old I remember when Samsung meant cheap junk.

 

[Darth Shiv]

Or follow MS and skip 9 and jump to 10. I never liked the note versions of their phones to be honest.

The Note phones have been up till now great. I'd really struggle to go back to a smaller form factor phone. The screen size is awesome.

Pretty epic fail though - getting the replacement wrong. I can see this making tech fail lists for a while.

 

[Igrecman]

The Note 7 works perfectly... when you use a marker to write a Note on the glass.

 

[Alex Voinica]

This year might be a game changer following this event. Probably a big part of the users who wanted Note 7 will opt for an iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus. Google also failed with their expensive Pixel phones which came as a surprise.

 

[jauffins]

This company has been using cheap parts for years
Remember this? https://topclassactions.com/lawsuit...samsung-tv-capacitor-class-action-settlement/

Every one uses cheap parts, including, Dell, Apple and others. Apple just has been caught these days that they weren't using sapphire like they claim in their lenses but sapphire laminate which is not as sturdy as Apple claims.

This comment is false and has been disproved.