Samsung Electronics Co Ltd yesterday said that its latest flagship Galaxy S smartphone could be delayed as it pledged to enhance product safety following an investigation into the cause of fires in its premium Note 7 devices.
Wrapping up its months-long probe into the cause of the Note 7 debacle, the world’s top smartphone maker said faulty batteries from two suppliers were to blame for a product failure that wiped US$5.3 billion off its operating profit.
Samsung mobile chief Koh Dong-jin said procedures had been put in place to avoid a repeat of the fires, as investors look to the launch of the South Korean tech giant’s first premium handset since the Note 7, the Galaxy S8, some time this year.
“The lessons of this incident are deeply reflected in our culture and process,” Koh told reporters at a news conference. “Samsung Electronics will be working hard to regain consumer trust.”
However, Koh said the Galaxy S8 would not be unveiled at the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona, which begins on Feb. 27, the traditional forum for Samsung premium product launches.
He did not comment on when the company planned to launch the new handset.
Investors have been looking to the investigation into the Note 7 failure to reassure consumers that the company is on top of the problem and can be trusted to fix it.
Samsung’s reputation took a hammering after it announced a recall of fire-prone Note 7s, only for reports to emerge that replacement devices also caught fire. Images of melted Samsung devices spread on social media and airlines banned travelers from carrying them on flights.
The handset, Samsung’s answer to Apple Inc’s iPhones, was withdrawn from sale in October last year, less than two months after its launch, in one of the biggest failures in tech history.
Investigations by internal and independent experts ruled out problems with the Note 7’s hardware and software, Samsung said.
Instead, manufacturing and design defects in Note 7 batteries caused short-circuiting, Koh said.
Samsung Electronics did not name the battery suppliers yesterday, but previously identified them as affiliate Samsung SDI Co Ltd and China’s Amperex Technology Ltd (新能源科技).
SDI said in a statement it will invest 150 billion won (US$128.56 million) to improve product safety and expected to continue to supply batteries for Samsung phones.
Samsung said it accepted responsibility for asking battery suppliers to meet certain specifications and did not plan to take legal action against them.
The company touted longer battery life and fast charging as major improvements when it launched the Note 7.
Among other measures to boost safety, Samsung said it had implemented an eight-point battery check system to avoid any such problems going unnoticed.
While Samsung Electronics’ mobile division is expected to have bounced back from the Note 7 failure during the fourth quarter, investors remained cautious about the outlook for sales of flagship devices.
“I think they did enough to convince most consumers that they knew what happened and can prevent future issues,” said Patrick Moorhead, president of technology analyst and advisory firm Moor Insights & Strategy.
Samsung Electronics shares were up 0.6 percent, while the wider market was down 0.1 percent yesterday.
The South Korean firm expects fourth-quarter operating profit to hit a more than three-year high, driven by booming chip sales.
That forecast pushed Samsung’s share price to a record high this month. Samsung is to announce its final earnings figures today.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last