Will they get it right this time?
Image Credit: Aaron Yoo on Flickr
By now, we’ve all heard about the trouble with Samsung’s infamous exploding Galaxy Note 7 phones. After two major recalls, involving millions of handsets, the world thought that they would have finally left this saga behind – I mean the phone has been banned by almost every other airline. However, it seems that the head honchos behind Samsung just aren’t just ready to let go of the Note 7.
If you require a little refresher, the Galaxy Note 7 was initially released in August of 2016, but was soon recalled after reports of several units bursting into flames. New units with supposedly safe batteries were then issued out in September, unfortunately, they faced the same issues as the initial phones. The Galaxy Note 7 was then subsequently discounted for all intents and purposes.
However, it seems that the story isn’t yet over for the device. According to recent reports coming out of South Korea – specifically the South Korean news website The Korean Economic Daily – Samsung is planning to refurbish the defective products for a third relaunch in June of this year. The refurbishment is reported to reduce the phone’s battery capacity from 3,500mAh to just slightly above 3,000mAh, to avoid the battery problems it faced late last year.
While no official announcement has been made by Samsung regarding this development, it’s make sense that they would move to salvage some of the costs involved from the double recall, as well as the environmental impact disposing of an estimated 2.5 million devices. Previously, a Samsung representative was quoted saying that they would be “reviewing possible options that can minimize the environmental impact of the recall.”
However, whether they would make any inroads in reselling the device for a third time is doubtful. According to the Harris Poll’s annual Reputation Quotient Ratings, which ranks the public’s perception of a company, Samsung’s reputation in the US took a huge hit. From 2016 to 2017, Samsung saw their placing fall from a comfortable 7th to a rocky 49th. In comparison, Apple ranked at 5th place, while Google landed at the 8th spot. It’s safe to assume that public sentiment in other countries have taken a hit as well.
As we wait for an official confirmation – or denial – from the Korean tech company, one has to note that despite this harrowing saga, the firm managed to grow its profits from the previous year by nearly 20%.
