After issuing a statement encouraging all carriers and retail partners globally to refrain from accepting new orders and exchanging models of the Galaxy Note 7, Samsung has just announced that it's going to bite the bullet and end production of the handset.
To be completely honest, we'd have been more surprised if the South Korean company decided to go ahead and initiate a second recall as the Galaxy Note 7 has been plagued with issues ever since it first started shipping to customers back in August.
The problems all started for Samsung on August 24, when the first report of a Note 7 “exploding” surfaced in the news. It wasn't long before many more followed with users claiming that their device overheated, then burst into flames while on charge.
Shortly after, Samsung announced its voluntary global recall of over 2.5 million units of the Galaxy Note 7 — including unsold stock — claiming that faulty batteries were to blame for the fires. The company offered to either refund or replace the recalled devices.
For some strange reason, owners weren't quick to come forward and exchange their handset. Instead, they decided to hang onto them, so reports of explosions kept flying in. As a result, the US federal aviation administration enforced a ban on using the Galaxy Note 7 on aircraft.
One day later, the CPSC urged consumers to stop using the phone, and on September 15, it issued a formal recall. However, the device continued to be sold in China as Samsung conducted thorough tests on the Asian variant and found that its particular cell was from a different supplier and wasn't affected by the recall.
A few days after it made the aforementioned statement, the first reports of Galaxy Note 7s catching fire in China started to emerge. Samsung worked with the owners and managed to obtain the remains of the units to investigate the cause of ignition. The results suggested that it was due to a manufacturing issue.
The situation died down for a couple of weeks and Samsung thought it was in the clear. The exchange program was well underway in the US, and for the most part, consumers were happy with their new devices. Although, a handful of owners did report that their handset was overheating and losing power while charging.
Samsung looked into the claims and issued a press release revealing that they were generic problems caused by a flaw in the manufacturing process. Customers were awarded another replacement.
Earlier this week, things took a turn for the worst when a Southwest Airlines flight was evacuated on a runway when an alleged ‘safe' Galaxy Note 7 spontaneously ignited before takeoff. Over the course of the next couple of days, another six reports of exchanged models exploding were published online.
Despite the new reports, there was still a glimmer of hope for Samsung. However, that was flushed down the pan on October 9, when two of the US' largest carriers AT&T and T-Mobile announced that they would stop selling the phone as a result of the new explosions.
To add fuel to the fire, it was revealed on the same day that Samsung had attempted to cover up a nasty explosion that sent a Galaxy Note 7 owner to hospital with acute bronchitis caused by smoke inhalation.
Sprint, US Cellular and Verizon all followed in their competitors footsteps a couple of days later, leaving Samsung with no means of distribution in one of its key markets.
By this point, it was officially game over and just a matter of time before it made the call to end production.
We're glad it did.
