Samsung chief apologizes for Galaxy Note 7 fiasco, promises to regain customers trust

The Galaxy Note 7 has been a major blow for Samsung. After repeated replacements of the flagship device, the company had no choice but to kill it. Samsung Electronics Mobile Chief, Koh Dong-jin is in bit of a soup and probably the first time since he started heading the division in 2014.

At a press conference in South Korea, Koh expressed his deep frustration with the entire Galaxy Note 7 fiasco, Korean Herald reports. He bowed in front of the gathered media and promised that the company “would at any cost find the exact cause (behind the Galaxy Note 7 battery issues) to restore trust of consumers so that they can use Samsung products without any safety concerns.” While a fiasco of this magnitude would usually see the department head leave, and a few media reports suggest as much, Koh is seeing a lot of support from Samsung loyalists and employees, and he expressed his gratitude towards them at the press conference.

Dong-Jin Koh has been at Samsung since 1984, and joined the company’s mobile business division in 2007. Only last year he was appointed as the head of the mobile division, taking over from Jong-kyun Shin. Koh has played a major role in coming up with innovations like the stylus for the Galaxy Note series, and Samsung Pay to name a few.

Samsung is currently in the process of recalling all Galaxy Note 7 units that have been shipped. In certain countries, the company is replacing the returned units with other devices like the Galaxy S7 or Galaxy S7 edge. In others, buyers are being offered full refund. Samsung has issued a statement stating that the effect of the Galaxy Note 7 discontinuation will be felt across two quarters. This fiasco could end up costing the company around $3 billion. Samsung has also said that it currently plans on ‘expanding sales of Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge’, and will also ‘focus on enhancing product safety for consumers by making significant changes in its quality assurance processes’.

Since the launch of the Galaxy Note 7, it has been a downhill ride for Samsung. The numerous reports of the phablet catching fire put a harsh spotlight on the company as it tried unsuccessfully to rescue the flagship device. But with replacement and so called ‘safe’ units also catching fire, it was only a matter of time before Samsung would completely discontinue the mobile device.

What seems odd is that even Samsung is not sure what exactly the problem is. Though a manufacturing defect in the batteries is widely believed to be the root cause of the problem, the problem is Samsung’s engineers have been unable to reproduce the explosion on their test phablets.  A media report recently quoted the chairman of the US Consumer Product Safety Commission saying that the real reason for the batteries exploding could be that the “phone’s battery was slightly too big for its compartment and the tight space pinched the battery, causing a short circuit.”

With Samsung keeping mum, quite a few theories are doing rounds on the internet and some put the blame for the explosions on the overclocked processor. All this has raised more questions and Samsung has so far been unable to answer most of them. 

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