Samsung
has announced that it is ending the production of the Galaxy Note7 and permanently discontinuing it worldwide.
The decision comes immediately after the company issued a press release asking
users to power down all original and replaced Note7 units, and for retailers
and career partners to stop sales and exchanges of the smartphone.
“We remain
committed to working diligently with appropriate regulatory authorities to take
all necessary steps to resolve the situation.” said Samsung in a statement
yesterday.
The decision to end
the Note7 production is the final step in a rather tumultuous journey. After
being announced back in August and being met with generally positive reviews,
the Note7 first came under fire — quite literally — after reports of units
exploding surfaced on the internet. After 35 cases had been reported, Samsung
issued an official recall of the device, which sent everyone in a tizzy and
airlines and airport authorities calling for an official ban on usage of the
device in several countries.
Samsung did what it
could, replacing not just the affected but every Note7 it sold and issuing a
new device with an updated battery pack and a green battery indicator so the
customers and authorities alike could tell them apart. It even restricted the
older devices from charging beyond 60% so people who hadn’t replaced theirs yet
wouldn’t overcharge them.
But after the
replacement units also started catching fire, most notably one on a Southwest
Airlines flight 994 from Louisville to Baltimore, which had to be evacuated
when a passenger’s replacement Note7 caught fire, Samsung eventually asked
everyone to power them down. And finally did what was inevitable and, some
might argue, what should have been done from the beginning, pulled the plug
entirely on the Note7.
We are waiting to
hear from Samsung on how it plans to proceed with existing Note7 devices that
are out there and also how it deals with customers who have pending orders.
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