Samsung stops production, sales and exchanges of Galaxy Note 7 after more incidents
Last Tuesday, Kentucky resident Michael Klering woke up to the smell of smoke.
“Look over, and my phone’s on fire,” he said.
He had traded in his first Samsung Galaxy Note 7 smartphone a week earlier.
“The phone’s supposed to be a replacement. So you would have thought it was safe,” Klering said.
His device is one of several in the U.S. to have overheated, caused by the same problem that prompted Samsung to recall 2.5 million phones in September and replace the lithium batteries.
“Initially we thought that it was simply a battery from a specific battery supplier but these replacement phones have batteries from a different supplier,” said Dan Ackerman, who covers the tech industry for CNET.
“Then obviously the issue is somewhere else. It may be the design of battery itself. It may be another component. It may be a combination of issues,” Ackerman said
The latest incidents have now forced new action by Samsung. In a statement to CBS News, the company said “Samsung will ask all carrier and retail partners globally to stop sales and exchanges of the Galaxy Note7 while the investigation is taking place.”
“This was the big sort of flagship look at me phone with the curved edges, the screen that is just as big as iPhone, it was definitely meant to be a big holiday push phone,” Ackerman said.
“It is definitely not going to show up in a lot of stockings for Christmas.”
The Note 7 was the South Korean electronics giant’s biggest shot yet at its greatest rival, Apple. Industry analysts say suspending sales of this model could cost Samsung $630 million this quarter alone. The Consumer Product Safety Commission is also investigating.