Samsung Halts Production of Note 7 After Replacement Phones Explode [Updated]

[alexgowers]

When i said before that the Note line is dead. Someone told me i was wrong. I think I called it correct.

Personally I can't see why you would want a samsung, out of the android phones they have almost double the app launch times because of the services and skin on top of android. I think the Google pixel might finally work this year. I prefer not to be mined for my data so avoid android but I still like to look.

 

[44267547]

I think the Note series is permanently damaged. How they rebound from this, is a lot to fathom. Samsung has to be vigilant and precise with whatever route they choose in the future regarding the Note.

 

[bdkennedy1]

All of the money they are losing and the lawsuits haven't even started yet.

 

[slimothy]

Meanwhile, in Cupertino.

Lmfao

 

[31 Flavas]

And to think all the "-gate" jokes started due to minor issues with Apple phones...

...Imagine making a device that routinely explodes, then replacing it and insisting it won't happen anymore and then it does again.

Apple Maps seems like fun in comparison.

Wow, you are right. I think... I don't recall -gate before that. Why the heck was -gate appended in the first place?

 

[Kebabselector]

Update 2: Samsung has said it is "temporarily adjusting the Galaxy Note 7 production schedule in order to take further steps to ensure quality and safety matters". The company said it hoped to provide an update within a month.

Management speak at it's finest.

 

[Radon87000]

A 5 billion hit is a blip?

What?You think Samsung is just gonna keel over and die?They are in too powerful a position to let this affect em

 

[I7guy]

What?You think Samsung is just gonna keel over and die?They are in too powerful a position to let this affect em

That's not what I said?

With Apple taking a revenue hit from $54B (a record) to $49B would have trotted out the "Apple is doomed" scenarios. Here it's; they are too powerful a company to keel over and die.

 

[31 Flavas]

It is more hilarious that Samsung actually has "fans" though - a company who notoriously just make rather cheap devices at almost premium prices. I can understand being a Google fan or an Android fan - and there are lots of decent Android handsets if thats the OS you prefer - but a Samsung fan is just odd. There's nothing they do that excels in any region, or get "cultly" about.

Well, to their credit their phone did launch with 4g / LTE and NFC before Apple's phones did. They also do have the 4X4 MIMO / 256 QAM before Apple -- As far as I understand it, though, Apples concerns were that early 4g / LTE chips drew too much power and there was no real functional advantage for NFC (on cell phones) before ApplePay. Sure you could trade playlists, but that's pretty inconsequential data. But, new tech isn't exclusively a Samsung thing.

 

[madmaxmedia]

Some people seem to be trying to minimize this (or I guess the opposite as well?), but the big issue is that Samsung doesn't seem to have a good handle on what is happening since replacement units are exploding as well. The problem is not that a few phones exploded, the problem is we have no idea right now why it's happening or how many phones are susceptible.

We don't know if only 10 phones will ever explode, or 10,000, if the replacement phones were to continue being sold. We don't know if it's one defect, or a few defects acting in combination. We don't know if it's an inherent defect in the design of the phone, a manufacturing defect, or maybe both. Maybe Flappy Birds is causing this- we don't know. If I had to guess, only a small percentage of units might be affected, but Samsung had better do more than just guess.

Right now Samsung has been lucky, no one has died and no homes have burned down. That accidental text response to the one owner was a really bad PR pie in the face, they may need to hire a crisis management experts to get on top of this. Better safe than sorry at this point, if they're lucky they'll figure out the cause of the problem soon and rectify it ASAP.

 

[Rafterman]

Honestly you can pry my Samsung SSD's from cold dead hands (I just hope that never becomes literally true and I have no reason to suspect it will). The smartphone brand is damaged though, not just "Note" but also "Galaxy" I suspect. "Galaxy" is such a valuable brand to this point in time but I do wonder if its time for them to consider something else.

I have two 2TB 850 Pro's, in a RAID setup and it is sick. A 4GB file copies up in about 3 seconds.

 

[joueboy]

Assuming you have a smartphone (probably an iPhone), can you please explain why you continue to use your smartphone, in light of what is happening to Note 7 owners, knowing that your smartphone has a large Li ion battery in it similar to the Note 7, with the same capability to "explode"? Don't we all take a chance, carrying around smartphones and portable chargers with even larger Li ion batteries, knowing these batteries are highly "explosive", yet we choose to continue to use them?

How is that any different than Note 7 owners that choose to continue to keep theirs? iPhones have caught fire in the past, but people (you?) continue to use them...

I'm not denying the fact that we all take risk in everything. Even while you're sleeping there's a risk involve. We can only minimize the risk through certain process. If a certain manufacturer of peanut butter claims a recall because of salmonella. Then that responsible party is just minimizing the potential danger. It doesn't mean that certain manufacturer that all products are dangerous. Maybe some of their products are made in other factory or the peanut they used is from different farm. I pretty sure you get my point by now. I'm only referring to Note 7 as claimed by Samsung that it has a higher risk that's the very reason why they had a RECALL. I'm pretty sure that the Galaxy S6 or iPhone 6S is a safer product, but it doesn't mean it's completely safe. I took a higher risk in my lifetime in certain situations and that's a personal choice. I drived my car during the snow storm even when autorities says it's not safe. It's my choice unless there's a law that prohibits to do so. If you choose to keep your Note7 so be it, maybe because you're willing to take more risk than anybody else. I don't remember that Samsung or any responsible authorities is forcing everyone to turn their Note7 in. But one thing I know they're trying to reach out to everyone who owns the Note7. And I applaud their efforts to do such thing because they care for the safety of their customers.

 

[GeneralChang]

I would be inclined to agree with you, except that the Pixel will be a Verizon exclusive. Google may have shot itself in the foot with that one.

That's true, and I suppose most people will be exchanging these at their carrier stores. Well, fair enough. But I'll bet Google still sees some increase in sales from Verizon Note 7 owners.

 

[ConfusedChris]

There are stilly plenty of uses for the Note 7 ....

I watched that far too many times!

I think they should 'Go directly to Note 8, ...'

Competition is good, right?

 

[Radon87000]

There's nothing they do that excels in any region, or get "cultly" about.

Um.The OLED display.You know,the best displays on the planet and one of the suppliers of the display panels of iPhone 8?

 

[Feenician]

I have two 2TB 850 Pro's, in a RAID setup and it is sick. A 4GB file copies up in about 3 seconds.

I run VMs off 2 of my 3(!) T1's over USB 3 and at around 400Mb/s Read/Write, with volume encryption, they're damn near as fast as the internal drive on my previous 2013 rMBP (though my 2015 brutalizes those at closer to 1.5Gb/s). I love the crap out of those things and I fully expect they will give me years of reliable and performant service. "HURR DURR EVERYTHING SAMSUNG MAKE IS BAD" is a wildly erroneous conclusion to draw from an analysis of their smartphone line.
[doublepost=1476114627][/doublepost]

Some people seem to be trying to minimize this (or I guess the opposite as well?), but the big issue is that Samsung doesn't seem to have a good handle on what is happening since replacement units are exploding as well. The problem is not that a few phones exploded, the problem is we have no idea right now why it's happening or how many phones are susceptible.

We don't know if only 10 phones will ever explode, or 10,000, if the replacement phones were to continue being sold. We don't know if it's one defect, or a few defects acting in combination. We don't know if it's an inherent defect in the design of the phone, a manufacturing defect, or maybe both. Maybe Flappy Birds is causing this- we don't know. If I had to guess, only a small percentage of units might be affected, but Samsung had better do more than just guess.

Right now Samsung has been lucky, no one has died and no homes have burned down. That accidental text response to the one owner was a really bad PR pie in the face, they may need to hire a crisis management experts to get on top of this. Better safe than sorry at this point, if they're lucky they'll figure out the cause of the problem soon and rectify it ASAP.

People keep trying to deflect and minimize it by saying, "well it's only 5/10/100 (delete as applicable)" but it's not the number that's the problem here, it's the rate. The number is wildly excessive over the timeframe. If the Note had been out for 2 years and those were the numbers it'd likely be within normal bounds.

 

[avanpelt]

Wow, you are right. I think... I don't recall -gate before that. Why the heck was -gate appended in the first place?

The Watergate scandal involving President Richard Nixon in the 1970s.

 

[rjohnstone]

I would be inclined to agree with you, except that the Pixel will be a Verizon exclusive. Google may have shot itself in the foot with that one.

I do agree as well. It was stupid of Google to do any form of carrier exclusivity.

Thankfully you will still be able to go to places like Best Buy and pick one up for use with the other carriers.
But even this is flawed in that you can only do carrier financing with Verizon. (At least that's what it looks like at the moment).

 

[98 others]

On Wednesday, a flight from Louisville to Baltimore was evacuated while still at the gate because of a smoking Note 7. Saturday saw a Minnesota case involving a 13-year-old girl who said she felt a "weird, burning sensation" while holding her phone and suffered a minor burn to her thumb. "It felt like pins and needles except a lot more intense," she said.

My initial reaction is to say to the parents, why does a 13 year old need a $800 phone, but I think instead I would ask why they gave her a phone that when it fails turns into a surprise grenade.

 

[MRU]

In my estimation MRU is simultaneously both the most sane and insane poster on the forums, but certainly one of the best. MRU for mod!! )

Lol ..... yeah definitely a mixture of both

 

[Feenician]

Lol ..... yeah definitely a mixture of both

I'm glad you took it in the spirit intended. While I don't blindly accept anyone's point of view if you say "X is better than Y" then I definitely stop and take a moment to look at your reasoning because it's always based on (rather extensive!) experience and not some kneejerk reaction.

 

[Rafterman]

I run VMs off 2 of my 3(!) T1's over USB 3 and at around 400Mb/s Read/Write, with volume encryption, they're damn near as fast as the internal drive on my previous 2013 rMBP (though my 2015 brutalizes those at closer to 1.5Gb/s). I love the crap out of those things and I fully expect they will give me years of reliable and performant service.

I hate to mention this, but after about two months, one of the drives failed. Swapping out with warranty was quick and easy, and the data was easily restored. The first drive is OK still, after 10 months and the replacement is OK, but it still sucked.

 

[Feenician]

I hate to mention this, but after about two months, one of the drives failed. Swapping out with warranty was quick and easy, and the data was easily restored. The first drive is OK still, after 10 months and the replacement is OK, but it still sucked.

Well s**t happens and I have backups in place for that very reason but the T1 at least looks solid (though I do wish the T3 had been more of a leap. In fact they drove up the cost of the second hand T1's)

 

[MRU]

I'm glad you took it in the spirit intended. While I don't blindly accept anyone's point of view if you say "X is better than Y" then I definitely stop and take a moment to look at your reasoning because it's always based on (rather extensive!) experience and not some kneejerk reaction.

Yeah I try to be, because generally I just LOVE technology. Not bothered about brand really, just love everything about technology. So I end up with a mix of phones (16 last year alone) and buy every console regardless of manufacturer and every new revision of those too. (I'm the same with music, book, films - I just consume every genre) Technology & Media is my addiction, finding time to enjoy it rather than the time working to afford to buy it though is always the real challenge

 

[dotnet]

The Watergate scandal involving President Richard Nixon in the 1970s.

Also, -gate sized scandals are reserved for Nixon and Apple. The best Samsung can hope for is Bang!ghazi...