There have been estimates that Samsung could lose at least a billion dollars by rushing out the Note 7 – which triggered the battery issue causing the device to explode – but this appears to be bigger than that. The Note 7 recall has just wiped off $26 billion from Samsung’s market cap since it was announced, as noted by financial data provider Factset and cited by Engadget.
Samsung’s shares apparently dropped 6.9% between the Korean Exchange’s close on Friday and Monday, which caused the terrific drop in market cap.
Meanwhile, the South Korean company is working on a way to fix the issue which triggered the massive recall. Samsung had shipped 2.5 million Note 7 handsets before the recall kicked off.
On top of the recall, Samsung will release a software update that will limit the battery charge to 60%, hoping to prevent further explosions. According to ZDNET, the OTA software update will arrive at 10:00 a.m. on September 20 in South Korea.
The manufacturer is already in talks with telcos from nine other countries – the first wave countries – to release a similar software update. This means the update might take a while until it will be pushed out to users.
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This seems like an excellent solution. /s
I feel bad for people who bought the phone. As a father of two and owner of plenty of baby things I know … recalls suck.
That’s a pretty disingenuous way of describing what’s happening.
Samsung can’t *force* people to return the recalled phones, so 24 hours after the first day South Koreans can return the faulty Note 7s for replacement devices, Samsung is sending out an OTA to all faulty South Korean models of the Note 7 that will limit it to a 60% charge. This serves the dual purpose of limiting the likelihood of an explosion for those batteries, while at the same time increasing the likelihood that owners of the faulty models will return them (who wants a phone that can only charge to 60%?).
The reason the solution in the article seems so stupid is because it doesn’t accurately explain what’s happening.
sup g-money, how does it feel to be a samesung shill? gtfo here, bottom line is the note 7 is a piece of junk, and shame on samsung for releasing that ticking time bomb and causing so many god damn injuries. the note 7 is the claymore of smartphones…it’s waiting to go boom. the class actions are coming, lamsung screwed up and this crappy fix is just pure BS!!!
Right… all valid points, though you seem to be having trouble spelling “Samsung”. Please refer back to that spelling when you type your responses.
In any case, this is absolutely shameful of Samsung to have released these faulty devices – and the inefficient way in which they’re handling the recall (while perhaps limited by supply constraints) is even more shameful. They are wilfully allowing potentially-dangerous devices to remain in peoples pockets, hands, and homes. I haven’t heard of any injuries caused by the Note 7, but I’m sure it’s only a matter of time.
But that doesn’t change the fact that the article misrepresents what Samsung is doing with their OTA.
I hope this spurs phone manufacturers to make phones with removable batteries again. Crazy to have to return the whole phone when a battery swap would have solved it much more easily.