Oliver Haslam·

Samsung’s Rushed Initial Note 7 Recall On Incomplete Evidence Doomed The Phone

Sometimes companies just can’t help but be the masters of their own downfall, and Samsung is very much in that category after not just having to recall its biggest phone of the year once, but twice, and then taking the unprecedented decision to can the device entirely. The cause of all that? Samsung’s batteries were exploding.

Or, at least, that’s what we were told. In reality, we don’t really know what was causing Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 smartphones to emit smoke and flame with such gusto, and it appears that the real cause of Samsung’s current woes are due its own eagerness to take swift corrective action rather than ensuring it has all the facts straight, before announcing its initial first Galaxy Note 7 replacement program.

note-7-rip

The leg work into the fallout of Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 debacle, carried out by the Wall Street Journal, paints a picture of a company so desperate to be seen as decisive that it made decisions and sent communications on information that was simply inaccurate. Kicking the process off was Samsung’s decision that batteries were the root cause of the exploding ailments suffered by the Note 7, namely those built by Samsung SDI – an affiliate of the company.

Replacement devices subsequently used batteries from a different company, Amperex Technologies, Ltd., but that of course didn’t stop the replacement devices deemed “safe”, from catching fire – sometimes dramatically. Could Samsung have taken more time between initiating the Galaxy Note 7 recall and sending replacement devices to customers?

Perhaps, but the speedy turnaround that looked great at the time has now left Samsung, and its flagship moneymaking Galaxy Note name tarnished, perhaps irreparably.

Galaxy-Note-7-return-kit

(Image: Fire-proof boxes from Samsung for returning Galaxy Note 7)

Samsung will presumably have learned from its mistakes, but with news that the Galaxy S8 may now be delayed due to the company initially rushing the Galaxy Note 7 out the door in order to beat Apple’s iPhone 7 to market, the ripples of failure could spread far and wide for the company.

(Source: WSJ)

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