Tuesday 11 October 201611.53 BSTLast modified on Tuesday 11 October 201612.03 BST
South Korean electronics company to kill off its flagship smartphone after failing to fix problems with batteries catching fire
Samsung has confirmed that it is permanently stopping production of the Galaxy Note 7 smartphone after it was involved in dozens of fires and explosions worldwide.
In a regulatory filing in South Korea late on Tuesday, the firm said it had made the decision to stop production, for the sake of consumer safety.
The move comes the day after Samsung said it was “adjusting production”, an admission that many saw as the first steps towards killing the phone entirely.
It said in a statement: “Putting consumer safety as the top priority, we have reached a final decision to halt production of Galaxy Note 7s.” A spokesperson confirmed that the suspension was “permanent”.
Samsung said customers will still be allowed to apply for a full refund or to swap their Note 7s for other Samsung products. It also advised all customers with an original or replacement Galaxy Note 7 to “power down and stop using the device” immediately.
In discontinuing the phone, Samsung follows the advice of many analysts who saw it as a lost cause, and who argued that the company’s priority should be protecting the rest of its brand.
“If it’s once, it could be taken as a mistake. But for Samsung, the same thing happened twice with the same model so there’s going to be a considerable loss of consumer faith,” said Greg Roh at HMC Investment Securities.
“The reason consumers prefer brands like Samsung and Apple is because of product reliability … so in this case brand damage is inevitable and it will be costly for Samsung to
South Korean electronics company to kill off its flagship smartphone after failing to fix problems with batteries catching fire
Samsung has confirmed that it is permanently stopping production of the Galaxy Note 7 smartphone after it was involved in dozens of fires and explosions worldwide.
In a regulatory filing in South Korea late on Tuesday, the firm said it had made the decision to stop production, for the sake of consumer safety.
The move comes the day after Samsung said it was “adjusting production”, an admission that many saw as the first steps towards killing the phone entirely.
It said in a statement: “Putting consumer safety as the top priority, we have reached a final decision to halt production of Galaxy Note 7s.” A spokesperson confirmed that the suspension was “permanent”.
Samsung said customers will still be allowed to apply for a full refund or to swap their Note 7s for other Samsung products. It also advised all customers with an original or replacement Galaxy Note 7 to “power down and stop using the device” immediately.
In discontinuing the phone, Samsung follows the advice of many analysts who saw it as a lost cause, and who argued that the company’s priority should be protecting the rest of its brand.
“If it’s once, it could be taken as a mistake. But for Samsung, the same thing happened twice with the same model so there’s going to be a considerable loss of consumer faith,” said Greg Roh at HMC Investment Securities.
“The reason consumers prefer brands like Samsung and Apple is because of product reliability … so in this case brand damage is inevitable and it will be costly for Samsung to
