As Samsung Electronics Co Ltd pledged to enhance product safety following an investigation into the cause of fires in its premium Note 7 devices, it indicated that its latest flagship Galaxy S smartphone could be delayed.
faulty batteries from two suppliers were to blame for a product failure that wiped $5.3 billion off its operating profit, the world's top smartphone maker said while wrapping up its months-long probe into the cause of the Note 7 debacle.
As investors look to the launch of the South Korean tech giant's first premium handset since the Note 7, the Galaxy S8, sometime this year, Samsung mobile chief Koh Dong-jin said procedures had been put in place to avoid a repeat of the fires.
"The lessons of this incident are deeply reflected in our culture and process," Koh told reporters at a press briefing. "Samsung Electronics will be working hard to regain consumer trust."
The Mobile World Congress (MWC) trade show in Barcelona which the traditional forum for Samsung premium product launches and which begins on Feb. 27, would not see the launch of the Galaxy S8, Koh said. No comments were made by him about about when the company planned to launch the new handset.
Om order to reassure consumers that the company is on top of the problem and can be trusted to fix it, the investigation into the Note 7 failure is being eagerly looked at.
Even as reports of the replaced devices catching fire, Samsung's reputation took a hammering after it announced a recall of fire-prone Note 7s. Airlines banned travellers from carrying them on flights and images of melted Samsung devices spread on social media.
In one of the biggest tech failures in tech history, in October - less than two months after its launch, the handset, Samsung's answer to Apple Inc's iPhones, was withdrawn from sale.
Samsung said that the chances of problems with the Note 7's hardware and software were ruled out by the investigations by internal and independent experts. Kpoh said that short circuiting was caused by the manufacturing and design defects in Note 7 batteries.
While previously identifying them as affiliate Samsung SDI Co Ltd and China's Amperex Technology Ltd (ATL), Samsung Electronics did not name the battery suppliers oin its latest communiqué. SDI expected to continue to supply batteries for Samsung phones and would invest 150 billion won ($128.56 million) to improve product safety. It said in a statement.
Samsung said it did not plan to take legal action against them and accepted responsibility for asking battery suppliers to meet certain specifications. When Samsung launched the Note 7, it touted longer battery life and fast charging as major improvements.
Experts remained cautious about the outlook for sales of future flagship devices while Samsung Electronics' mobile division is expected to have bounced back from the Note 7 failure during the fourth quarter.
"The current situation is not largely different from that of the first recall when it pointed fingers at batteries," said Park Chul-wan, a former director of the Centre for Advanced Batteries at the Korea Electronics Technology Institute.
"Consumers will accept the results only if there is no problems with S8."
He thought Samsung had done enough to convince consumers that it can "prevent future issues", said Patrick Moorhead, president of technology analyst and advisory firm Moor Insights & Strategy.
(Source:www.reuters.com)
faulty batteries from two suppliers were to blame for a product failure that wiped $5.3 billion off its operating profit, the world's top smartphone maker said while wrapping up its months-long probe into the cause of the Note 7 debacle.
As investors look to the launch of the South Korean tech giant's first premium handset since the Note 7, the Galaxy S8, sometime this year, Samsung mobile chief Koh Dong-jin said procedures had been put in place to avoid a repeat of the fires.
"The lessons of this incident are deeply reflected in our culture and process," Koh told reporters at a press briefing. "Samsung Electronics will be working hard to regain consumer trust."
The Mobile World Congress (MWC) trade show in Barcelona which the traditional forum for Samsung premium product launches and which begins on Feb. 27, would not see the launch of the Galaxy S8, Koh said. No comments were made by him about about when the company planned to launch the new handset.
Om order to reassure consumers that the company is on top of the problem and can be trusted to fix it, the investigation into the Note 7 failure is being eagerly looked at.
Even as reports of the replaced devices catching fire, Samsung's reputation took a hammering after it announced a recall of fire-prone Note 7s. Airlines banned travellers from carrying them on flights and images of melted Samsung devices spread on social media.
In one of the biggest tech failures in tech history, in October - less than two months after its launch, the handset, Samsung's answer to Apple Inc's iPhones, was withdrawn from sale.
Samsung said that the chances of problems with the Note 7's hardware and software were ruled out by the investigations by internal and independent experts. Kpoh said that short circuiting was caused by the manufacturing and design defects in Note 7 batteries.
While previously identifying them as affiliate Samsung SDI Co Ltd and China's Amperex Technology Ltd (ATL), Samsung Electronics did not name the battery suppliers oin its latest communiqué. SDI expected to continue to supply batteries for Samsung phones and would invest 150 billion won ($128.56 million) to improve product safety. It said in a statement.
Samsung said it did not plan to take legal action against them and accepted responsibility for asking battery suppliers to meet certain specifications. When Samsung launched the Note 7, it touted longer battery life and fast charging as major improvements.
Experts remained cautious about the outlook for sales of future flagship devices while Samsung Electronics' mobile division is expected to have bounced back from the Note 7 failure during the fourth quarter.
"The current situation is not largely different from that of the first recall when it pointed fingers at batteries," said Park Chul-wan, a former director of the Centre for Advanced Batteries at the Korea Electronics Technology Institute.
"Consumers will accept the results only if there is no problems with S8."
He thought Samsung had done enough to convince consumers that it can "prevent future issues", said Patrick Moorhead, president of technology analyst and advisory firm Moor Insights & Strategy.
(Source:www.reuters.com)
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