Tech giant Samsung Electronics Co Ltd late on Monday said it plans to sell refurbished versions of the Galaxy Note 7 smartphone, the model pulled from markets last year due to fire-prone batteries.
Samsung’s Note 7s were permanently scrapped in October last year following a global recall, roughly two months from the launch of the nearly US$900 devices, after some smartphones self-combusted.
A subsequent probe found manufacturing problems in batteries supplied by two different companies — Samsung SDI Co Ltd and Amperex Technology Ltd.
Analysis from Samsung and independent researchers found no other problems in the Note 7 devices except the batteries, raising speculation that Samsung would recoup some of its losses by selling refurbished Note 7s.
A person familiar with the matter in January told reporters that Samsung was considering the possibility of selling refurbished versions of the device or reusing some parts.
However, Samsung’s announcement that revamped Note 7s would go back on sale surprised some with the timing — just days before it launches its new S8 smartphone today in the US, its first new premium smartphone since the debacle last year.
Samsung, under huge pressure to turn its image around after the burning battery scandal, had previously not commented on its plans for recovered handsets.
“Regarding the Galaxy Note 7 devices as refurbished phones or rental phones, applicability is dependent upon consultations with regulatory authorities and carriers, as well as due consideration of local demand,” Samsung said in a statement, adding that the firm would pick the markets and release dates for refurbished Note 7s accordingly.
The company estimated that it took a US$5.5 billion profit hit over three quarters from the Note 7’s troubles. It had sold more than 3 million Note 7s before taking the smartphones off the market.
The company also plans to recover and use or sell reusable components, such as chips and camera modules, and extract rare metals such as copper, gold, nickel and silver from Note 7 devices it opts not to sell as refurbished products.
The firm had been under pressure from environmental rights group Greenpeace and others to come up with environmentally friendly ways to deal with the recovered Note 7s.
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