Samsung To Temporarily Suspend Production of Note 7 Devices

Samsung Electronics Co. has temporarily halted production of the Galaxy Note 7 smartphone, an official Samsung supplier said Monday. This suspension of production comes amid a series of reports that many Note 7 and Note 7 replacement devices have caught fire.

Image courtesy of Ars Technica

Image courtesy of Ars Technica

This past weekend saw a number of reports of Note 7 smartphones continuing to experience incendiary failures even though they had been replaced as part of Samsung’s global partners.

The suspension in production comes in cooperation between consumer safety regulators from South Korea, the United States, and China, elaborated the official, on the condition of anonymity.

The first reports of the Samsung Note 7 exploding-battery issue first surfaced in late August. While we are now comfortably into October, the issue is still being talked about by the press, and every week seems to complicate the issue for the South Korean company.

Samsung told the BBC that the suspension is necessary, and that they are currently “adjusting the production schedule to ensure quality and safety matters.”

In a further blow to the Korean company, two US-based cell carriers have stopped replacing or selling the smartphone. Both AT&T and T-Mobile stated that they would no longer replace Note 7 devices in the US, while the latter said it would halt all sales of the phone.

In response to U.S. carriers suspending Note 7 sales, Samsung told the WSJ, “We respect their decision.”

In a press release on Monday, Samsung reiterated that it understands the concerns of carriers and consumers regarding newly replaced Note 7 devices.

“We want to move quickly to investigate the reported cases to determine the causes and will share findings as soon as possible,” Samsung said.

“If we conclude a product safety issue exists, we will work with the CPSC (US Consumer Product Safety Commission) to take immediate steps to address the situation.”

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