Update, 5:11 p.m. PT: Samsung's investigation has revealed that 2 separate battery problems were to blame for the Note 7 failure. Read: Samsung answers burning Note 7 questions, vows better batteries
Samsung is ready to tell the world what went wrong __with its flagship Galaxy Note 7.
At a press conference in Seoul, South Korea, Samsung will explain what caused some of the Note 7 phones to catch fire, prompting one of largest recalls in tech history. An English-language version of the press conference will be live-streamed on Samsung.com on Sunday, January 22, at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT. (That's 10 a.m. in Seoul on Monday, January 23.)
The Note 7 fiasco has caused Samsung embarrassment, depleted consumer trust and, importantly, led to dwindling profits in late 2016. Samsung has apologized to buyers in both an open letter and full-page print ads -- it even referenced the debacle at the beginning of its CES press conference earlier this month.
The company has yet to give any details about the flaw or what will happen next. Recent stories by Reuters, The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg -- all citing one or more anonymous sources who were "familiar __with the matter" -- said that Samsung had isolated the problem to the Note 7's battery.
We don't know exactly how deep Samsung's mea culpa will go, but I expect the announcement to go something like this:
- Samsung will probably host a conference call or a live event, which it will also stream online
- An executive will apologize for the Note 7 fires and promise that Samsung won't repeat the same mistake
- Samsung will explain all the methods it took to recover the units, congratulating itself on its (correct) move to voluntarily recall the device (before it was formally recalled by governments and banned on airlines)
- The company will announce that it has recovered almost every existing Note 7 unit worldwide
- A different executive will explain details of the investigation, including which organizations took part and how many factories and processes were examined
- Finally, Samsung will reveal the issue that lead to the explosions (was it its aggressively thin design like some believe, or something else entirely?)
- Samsung will not go into scientific or technical detail about what caused the fire (but it'd be cool if the company did)
- It will announce an upgrade program for original Note 7 buyers who traded in their phone for a Galaxy S7 or S7 Edge
- The company will recommit to safe, innovative design and testing procedures (10 points for each use of "innovative")
Now is Samsung's opportunity to embrace something it's rarely known for: complete transparency. It's time for the company to show all its cards, even the bad ones, and forge a path for moving forward to spring's regularly scheduled Galaxy S launch, before revealing a new, absolutely safe, Note 8 by the year's end.
Read next: What it will take for the Samsung Galaxy S8 to rise from the Note 7's ashes
No comments:
Post a Comment