IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine - April 2017 - 99

Exploding
Galaxies

GOOD-BAD © CANSTOCK PHOTO/STUARTMILES,
CHIP COURTESY OF FREEIMAGES.COM/DIMSHIK

How to do recalls right.
By Karl Stephan

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MCE.2016.2640678
Date of publication: 15 March 2017

2162-2248/17©2017IEEE

APRIL 2017

^

GALAXY IMAGE LICENSED BY INGRAM PUBLISHING. ING IMAGES. PHONE: ©ISTOCKPHOTO/SIIXTH.

T

he summer and fall of 2016 were stirring times
in the mobile phone market. Samsung's long-awaited
Galaxy Note 7, called by some a "phablet" because of its
larger size and expanded capabilities that compare with
some tablet devices, was launched in many markets in
August 2016. It was thought by many to be a serious threat to
Apple, who launched its iPhone 7 a month later in hopes of reviving
its flagging presence in the mobile phone business. But nobody
expected the Galaxy Note 7 to make history the way it did-with a
spectacular flameout, both figuratively and literally.
Soon after the Galaxy's release in the United States, reports
began to surface on the Internet of fires caused by the devices,
usually when charging. The initial reports that the Galaxy phone
could catch fire gained the attention of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, which ordered Samsung to recall the
units after receiving 92 reports of overheating batteries. Samsung
announced the recall and reported that it had switched battery
suppliers from one of its own divisions to a different supplier in
China and offered anyone who had bought an original Galaxy
Note 7 a full refund or replacement.
But the fires continued, and in today's connected world, there
are few things more corrosive to a manufacturer's reputation than
a flock of YouTube videos showing how your product reduced itself and its surroundings to cinders. After a second, more extensive recall, in October 2016 Samsung threw in the towel and
discontinued the Galaxy Note 7 altogether. Anyone still stuck
with a unit that had not caught fire yet was supplied with an elaborate three-layer static-shielded flameproof shipping container
and a pair of gloves and instructed to return it by ground transportation, not air.

IEEE ConsumEr ElECtronICs magazInE

99



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