Woes with the Galaxy Note 7 are not yet over for Samsung. After a handset, which was certified as a new and safe began emitting smoke on an airplane about to take off, some consider the manufacturer may have to establish a second recall.
“If it’s the fixed phone and it started to smoke in his pocket, I’m going to guess there’ll be another recall,” Pamela Gilbert, former Executive Director of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission told Bloomberg.
At this time, Samsung has stated it is currently working with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission to investigate the claim of a man named Brian Green who said his powered down Galaxy Note 7 began smoking as he boarded a Southwest Airlines plane. The plane was evacuated and passengers were booked for later flights. Green shared the Galaxy Note 7 packaging and IMEI number of the handset as proof the device was intended to be safe.
U.S. carriers have been offering exchanges for new Galaxy Note 7 models since Sept. 21. The device officially went back on sale in Korea Oct. 1, with 30,000 customers buying a handset. Carriers, such as T-Mobile officially began selling the Galaxy Note 7 once more Oct. 5. Outside of reports of battery power drainage issues with the new Galaxy Note 7, this claim has been the only one connected to the models Samsung designated as safe.
However, carriers are already taking precautionary measures in terms of the Galaxy Note 7. Sprint told Recode it will now offer owners of the newer Galaxy Note 7 a free exchange to any smartphone of their choice. Sprint CEO, Marcelo Claure previously stated consumers would quickly forget the Galaxy Note 7 was ever in a recall.
Many carriers will likely be much more responsive to claims of danger in products coming through it’s channels. Particularly after the initial Galaxy Note 7 recall, during which directives from Samsung and carriers left many consumers confused.
“This may set a precedence. In the future carriers and handset makers need to have a better system to doing recalls,” IHS analyst Wayne Lam told iDigitalTimes.
Prior to the official recall and new models being in stores, reports indicated most Galaxy Note 7 owners opted to not return their smartphones. Since then, Samsung claims more than 60 percent of U.S. owners have returned the recalled Galaxy Note 7, while about 90 percent have exchanged the old Galaxy Note 7 for a newer Galaxy Note 7 model.
Analysts indicate Samsung saw a year-over-year profit increase during the third quarter, which occurs from June to September, despite the recall, which took place during this time. Reports have also indicated the recall and Galaxy Note 7 exchange program may have cost Samsung about $1.8 billion.
It remains to be seen how the Galaxy Note 7 recall will affect Samsung in the long term; however, many signs point to the manufacturer pouring considerable energy into its next Galaxy S handset. The S line, which releases in the spring, has traditionally been a larger volume seller than the Galaxy Note line.
After the latest smoking incident involving a newer Galaxy Note 7 model, some pundits suggest Samsung should cut its losses with the Galaxy Note 7 and pull it off the shelves all together.
Reports from Bloomberg connected the Galaxy Note 7 battery defect, which led to the initial recall, to Samsung’s race to been the iPhone 7 to market. There may have been a lapse in the Galaxy Note 7 testing, which caused the defect to go unnoticed. However, some consider errors should be expected in saturated market where the push to innovate first is highly competitive.
“You can't fault [Samsung] for trying. Yes, you can fault them for quality issues. But there is a lot of precedence,” Lam told iDigi. “Intel had that famous Pentium floating point error, it recovered okay. It took some time to earn the trust back.”
Currently, there is no word on what caused an issue in the most recent Galaxy Note 7 claim.
