Tech - News
The One Failure That Changed Samsung Forever
By SANJIV SATHIAH
In 2016, Samsung launched the Galaxy Note 7 to much fanfare, but unfortunately excitement turned to explosiveness — literally — when it was determined that its lithium-ion battery was prone to combusting, catching fire, and even exploding under certain circumstances. Soon after, the whole Galaxy Note 7 launch imploded.
Samsung announced a voluntary recall of the 2.5 million Note 7 smartphones that it had sold in the roughly two weeks since it had gone on sale. However, once the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission became involved, things continued to go from bad to worse: U.S. carriers decided to stop selling the model and issuing replacement devices.
Almost two months after it first went on sale, Samsung pulled the plug on Galaxy Note 7 production and, to its credit, took its investigation of the issue very seriously. Incredibly, it was revealed that batteries from its two different suppliers were both found to be faulty, each one causing potentially dangerous short circuits.
Samsung’s overly aggressive design approach may have also been a factor in the Note 7’s demise: A desire to make the device as thin as possible meant that the batteries did not have enough room to expand like normal. Undoubtedly, the Galaxy Note 7 was a major fiasco for Samsung and undermined consumer trust in the brand.
Not only did Samsung’s reputation suffer, but also the company took a whopping financial hit to the tune of around $7 billion in lost revenue. Although Samsung remains a successful company and is currently the number one smartphone vendor in the world, the Galaxy Note 7 will always be a black mark on its storied history.