Samsung Electronics Co is retrieving all Galaxy Fold samples distributed to reviewers, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said yesterday, as the firm smarts from the reputational blow of postponing the launch of its first foldable smartphone.
The South Korean tech giant met with embarrassment ahead of the device’s US release on Friday, with a handful of technology journalists reporting breaks, bulges and blinking screens after just a day’s use.
However, the setback for the US$1,980 niche device is trivial compared with the Galaxy Note 7 debacle of 2016, when exploding batteries forced Samsung to scrap the flagship model at huge cost.
Photo: AFP
Galaxy Fold shipments this year are likely to make up less than half a percent of Samsung’s annual total, analysts and investors said.
Samsung postponed the Galaxy Fold’s launch for an unspecified period of time while it investigated the damage reports, it said on Monday.
Initial findings into the causes pointed to impact on exposed areas of the screen’s hinges, it said.
A representative declined to comment further yesterday.
Though the issue does not hurt Samsung’s balance sheet, the postponement damages the firm’s effort to showcase itself as an innovative first mover, not a fast follower, analysts said.
Daiwa Capital Markets said it saw little impact on Samsung’s earnings, but that the issue is likely to have a bigger impact on supply-chain companies which rely on the tech giant.
Reflecting that sentiment, Samsung’s shares yesterday ended 0.3 percent lower versus the broader market’s 0.2 percent gain.
Parts suppliers suffered steeper declines, with hinge maker KH Vatec Co shedding 3 percent.
A person with direct knowledge of the supply chain said that KH Vatec conducted an internal review of hinges used in the Galaxy Fold and found no defects.
The supplier declined to comment.
Last month, Samsung released a video showing robots folding Galaxy Fold handsets 200,000 times for its durability test.
In some cases, reviewers had peeled off a layer of film that they mistook for a disposable screen protector.
“It’s disastrous that Samsung sent samples to reviewers without clear instructions on how to handle the device,” analyst Kim Young-woo at SK Securities said.
Samsung planned to sell 1 million Galaxy Fold handsets this year, the equivalent of less than half a percent of the 291.3 million smartphones it sold last year.
Of last year’s the total, 12.8 million were Note series phones, one estimate showed.
“On the bright side, we have an opportunity to nail down this issue and fix it before selling the phones to a massive audience, so they won’t have same complaints,” a Samsung employee said on condition of anonymity.
Samsung e-mailed pre-order customers upon delaying the launch, online outlets said on Twitter.
“Your pre-order guarantees your place in the queue for this innovative technology,” Samsung said in the e-mail. “We’ll update you with more specific shipping information in two weeks.”
In Taiwan, the South Korean firm issued a statement saying a Galaxy Fold launch-related event scheduled for tomorrow has been canceled.
Samsung said the Galaxy Fold “needs further improvements” before it can be made available to consumers.
It said it would continue to evaluate feedback from reviewers and carry out further tests on the phone.
Additional reporting by Staff writer and CNA
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