Surprised I'm not seeing any "Samsung is doomed!" comments.
That's because:
1) Many people here say that Samsung doesn't sell that many Notes, compared to the hundreds of millions of other phones. If so, then this recall/stoppage actually affects a relatively small portion of their buyers.
2) Samsung's stock actually hit an all time high a few days ago, amid reports that this recall is forcing the incoming CEO (son of the founder) to possibly break up the company into several more manageable administrative pieces.
3) Analysts are pointing out that phones (Mobile comms below) have dropped from being the majority profit source for Samsung, while their other electronic divisions are doing well selling parts to everyone else:
So ironically, this could end up being good for Samsung in the long run. Weird, eh?
Which is, no doubt, why Cook is trying to push Apple into other fields, to provide a cushion for future decreasing phone sales.