If you haven’t heard it in the news, Samsung’s latest flagship – the Galaxy Note 7, has some serious heating issues. Apparently the phablet has a tendency to blow up, or more like go up in smoke. Samsung acknowledged the problem and issued replacement devices, but they have inherited the problem and still have a tendency to self combust.
Nowadays exploding or burning batteries are not completely uncommon. Every now and then there is a picture, or a Youtube video, of some kind of device going up in flames, and usually they are forgotten the next day. In Samsung’s case it is worth a headline because
- We are talking about a highly praised flagship.
- It is about a Samsung, one of the big players in the mobile device market.
- It didn’t have anything to do with false chargers, bootleg batteries or unconventional circumstances.
- A recall with replacements did not solve the problem
All the above points have put Samsung in a very bad position and forced it to completely stop production of the Galaxy Note 7.
The news has hit Samsung’s stocks hard, nobody really knows if the Koreans can recover from this embarrassment, which in return does not help investor confidence.
There is a big possibility that Samsung will lose some customers on the short run. Although most people see Apple as the main rival, the chances are high that most customers will stick to Android and turn to Google or the Chinese competition.
Samsung’s only chance to reduce losses and minimize the damage to its reputation is to do a damn good job of keeping its customers happy. Despite the financial loss they have already suffered, they need to put a lot into customer service and public relations to get this story out of people’s heads.
