On Tuesday, Samsung finally killed it flagship cellphone “Galaxy Note 7” after numerous reports of phone explosion in the United States and worldwide. Starting from August, Galaxy Note 7 has spontaneously exploded during normal usage by customers. Initially, Samsung concluded that the defect was caused by faulty batteries from one of its suppliers. After Samsung issued recall of the problematic devices in September, it continued to ship new Galaxy Note 7s with batteries from a different supplier. However, some of the replacement phones continued to explode as Samsung’s technicians were unable to identify the problem.
Samsung finally pulled Note 7 out of its product line after the company suffered a disastrous stock slump, potentially causing more financial losses to the company as well as it shareholders. Note 7, now commonly referred by consumers as Boom 7, came to the market bearing hope that it will surpass iphone by winning more consumers from its archrival. Market analysts pointed out that the top-down, militaristic approach most Korean “Chaebols” operate also contributed to this time’s Boom 7 fiasco as people at the top has no idea how product technology worked.
It was an unusual and bold move for Samsung to end production of its flagship cellphone. However, this move is helpful in the long run as it tends to help rebuild consumer trust in Samsung’s products. It remains to be seen whether the growing consumer distrust in Samsung will spread to the rest of its product line as it seems that Samsung’s technicians still do not know where the problem is with Boom 7.