Samsung Electronics Co will tomorrow reveal that irregularly sized batteries made by an affiliate caused the overheating and fires that eventually forced the cessation of its Note 7 smartphone line, a person familiar with the matter said.
The world’s largest smartphone maker is scheduled to announce the results of an investigation into the fires that forced it to kill its most expensive device last year.
The South Korean company is to announce that Samsung SDI Co made batteries that did not fit properly into the device, causing it to overheat, said the person, who declined to be identified because the results of the probe have not been made public.
Samsung has been intent on regaining consumers’ trust since the Note 7 fiasco.
The company’s deepest business crisis in its 48 years began with a growing list of reports about the device overheating or bursting into flames. That triggered a global recall, inviting regulatory scrutiny and public outrage around the world. The firm ultimately apologized and killed off the line.
Samsung enlisted multiple investigation agencies including UL Co, a US-based testing and certification firm, to figure out what went wrong.
The Wall Street Journal first reported on the investigation results.
It also cited unidentified sources as saying that there was a manufacturing issue involving batteries made by another supplier, Amperex Technology Ltd (ATL, 新能源科技), that resulted from a quick ramp-up in production of replacement phones.
An ATL representative did not answer a call for comment outside of normal business hours. Samsung had no immediate comment. Samsung SDI representatives did not respond to calls seeking comment outside of working hours.
Samsung says it is focused on learning from its mistakes as it prepares to launch the next in its Galaxy S line, said to be in March or April.
“We should not compromise with even the tiniest problems in product quality,” Samsung co-chief executive officer Kwon Oh-hyun said during his annual New Year’s speech. “Let’s recover our pride by improving manufacturing processes and safety inspections.”
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day