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| Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3770185/Samsung-considering-global-recall-Galaxy-Note-7-smartphone-battery-fire.html |
Smartphone
revolution of 21st century has completely and irreversibly changed the way
people perceive the phone as a device and its functionality. Smartphones are
omnipresent nowadays and are used by pretty much everybody to perform pretty
much every activity using countless number of mobile apps, which make
our
everyday life easier or just more fun. The increased interest of customers in digitalizing
every aspect of their lives has not escaped the attention of tech concerns,
which are constantly doing their best trying to live up to customer’s
expectations by making their products better-designed, more durable and just
cooler. However, it looks
like the race has recently become too tough for one of the leaders – Samsung,
which had to completely recall from production their brand new smartphone–
Galaxy Note 7, what will result in a spectacular financial loss and
considerable image damage.
There are
hundreds of complaints
coming from all over the world reporting numerous cases of phones on fire or
even actually exploding. Those messages can really make the consumers feel
uncomfortable considering the fact how often a phone is held right next
to our face and nobody wants to end up like Harvey Dent. The blame for the
whole fuss is to be put on the lithium ion battery, which has a fault that
leads to the phone overheating. It is commonly believed that the smartphone,
and so the battery, were designed to thin.
It can be
argued whether this mistake resulted from greed or it is just a matter of
negligence, however, the
consequences for Samsung are severe. The first thing worth
mentioning here is of course money. It is estimated that the scandal will cost
Samsung approximately £2 bn; yet, the
calculations are still subject to change since the situation is extremely
volatile. Reduced profits may not be the biggest worry though. From the PR and
image point of view damages may be irreversible and may result not only in the
reduced interest in Samsung’s smartphones but also in any other kind of
electronic products, which have completely nothing to do with the scandal
except from the common brand. Samsung is trying to make it up to their
clients promising a free phone exchange. Also, it is
providing customers with
fireproof boxes to send their phones back in a 100% safe way, but to what
extend can PR and marketing campaigns erase this affair out of people’s memory?
According to
statistics, Samsung is a leader on the smartphone market
with a market share amounting to 23%, followed by Apple with 13,4%. The numbers
seem to give Samsung a safe
advantage over competitors, however, let’s not forget how volatile and unstable
this sector is and over years we have witnessed a failure of
Nokia and Blackberry. Is Samsung going to join this circle? Let’s wait and see.
Here’s
a video of Samsung Note 7 burning in Korea:
and
aftermaths:
Feel
free to comment and share your opinion on this topic.
Sources:
Comments
I think that this is a disaster for a leading tech company, they should give up on the Note brand entirely and save the most valuable asset - reputation.
I can't even find appropriate words to describe what I think about a company such as Samsung putting people's life at risk by not carefully testing their own product, but it's a fact that I don't like that company at all, so I wouldn't be objective telling how many things went wrong there.
Ok, now let’s be serious. I fully agree with Łukasz. Samsung has made a phone which actually is a minibomb. It’s unbelievable how it could even happen? Where the test were? In my opinion there are a lot company like Samsung - they want to release their product fast to beat competitors, earn money faster. The key is that they are much smaller and not as well known as Samsung so scandals are not as effective. When it comes to our common safety, I am a bit afraid. When I travel to school, work by bus/underground sometimes I am wondering how many people around have Samsung phones.
My friend works for Samsung now actually and has to answer many customer complaints, which I don't envy.
Similar to Łukasz, I don't like Samsung. I don't know why. Normal prejudice.
But it's not important if I like or dislike Samsung if somebody's life is in danger.
We can't say anything more, because it is just scandal.
About week ago I read article about a boy whose arm was burned with this smartphone. It's terrible.
I think that this coincidence should teach us about the potential danger of producing devices, which are not properly tested.
Check it out - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GhODn4FRoE
There were many jokes abut these exploding issue, one of them is that Samsung is proudd of having this feature before Apple. In South Korea, Samsung released a patch for people who don't want to return their devices. It avoids the battery being charged more than 60% of its capacity, what is kind of funny. You may also want to watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GhODn4FRoE
Smartphones are becoming more and more powerful, have longer battery life and in the same time getting thinner. In my opinion it was inevitable, that something like this will happen. I think, that Samsung did really well in terms of PR, their action was quick and safe for customers. I am sure, that customers will quickly forget about this accident.
My friend also recently come into contact with a statement such as returning from Greece to Polish plane Line Smart Planet.
It is forbidden to charge your phone on the plane and generally can not be switched on even in the flight mode.
Errors will keep on happening - bigger or smaller, I think it's better when producers are trying to "take care of them - regardless of the consequences".
No invention whose is manmade never be perfect. iPhone 6 was contort with any problem, but Apple improved this defect. Now, as with any new software or phone they are better. Any devices will not be perfect. They could be better, but always they will have some fault.
It is really scary to think about your phone exploding while you’re calling someone. The exchange and recall of damaged devices was only think that Samsung could do to control the damage. Time will tell if it affect their credibility, but I think that customers will quickly forget about this accidents.