By Jordan Graham, Boston Herald
Samsung’s disastrous rollout of its Galaxy Note 7 — marred by exploding batteries and discontinued permanently yesterday — may not be the last stumble of its kind as gadget developers continue to push the limits of smartphone technology, industry watchdogs warn.
“In pulling it off the market, I don’t think they had any choice, nobody was going to buy it. It’s certainly a black eye,” said Willy Shih, a professor at Harvard Business School.
“We see this competition which forces all the players to push things to the limits, and that’s how you get where we are now,” he added. “It’s probably not the last such incident ?we’ll see.”
Samsung said it would stop production and sale of the Galaxy Note 7 completely. The phone is the latest version of one of the most popular of its kind in the world. The launch earlier this year was quickly marred by reports of the phones overheating and exploding, and airlines began telling passengers they could not be used ?during flights.
Samsung announced a recall and began to replace the phones, citing a battery issue. But in recent weeks, some supposedly fixed replacement phones overheated and caught on fire, ending in production being cut.
Dan Michaelis of Middleboro said he bought a Note 7 earlier this year, and was putting it on the grill every time he charged it, just in case.
“We love the phone, the phone is awesome, but some of them blow up,” Michaelis said, adding he will still buy ?Samsung phones.
Michaelis said he has not been able to return the phone because he bought it from an independent store while on ?vacation in Montana.
Samsung has been widely criticized for how it handled the recall, including failing to communicate with local safety officials during the initial recall, as well as failing to disclose issues with a replacement phone for several days.
“Burying their head in the sand and hoping the problem goes away is not the solution,” said David Gerzof Richard, chief executive of tech PR firm BigFish Communications and a communications professor at Emerson College. “The primary concern should be, ‘How do we get this faulty product back in our hands so if anything happens, it happens ?with us?’?”
Some analysts have said the cost of the recall and lost revenue could be as much as $17 billion.
Also yesterday, Samsung’s $399 million ?judgment for illegally copying parts of the patented design of Apple’s iPhone went before the U.S. Supreme Court over the damages. No ruling was made.
©2016 the Boston Herald Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
