Samsung changes Note 7 output schedule after fire reports

The company did not confirm or deny a report by South Korea's Yonhap news agency earlier Monday that it has suspended production of the phones.

|
REUTERS/Andrew Kelly
Signage is seen at the Samsung 837 store in the Meatpacking District of Manhattan, New York, U.S., October 10, 2016.

Samsung's crisis with its Galaxy Note 7 smartphone deepened Monday as the company confirmed it has adjusted its production following reports that newly released versions offered as replacements for recalled fire-prone devices have also overheated or caught fire.

The company, however, did not confirm or deny a report by South Korea's Yonhap news agency earlier Monday that it has suspended production of the phones.

In a statement and in a regulatory filing, Samsung Electronics said it is "temporarily" adjusting the Galaxy Note 7 production schedule and production volume to "ensure quality and safety matters." The company added that it will issue an update when more details are available.

Before the reports of a production suspension emerged, U.S. phone retailers AT&T and T-Mobile had already opted to stop giving new Note 7 replacement smartphones to consumers.

Samsung and U.S. authorities are investigating multiple reports of new Note 7 replacement smartphones catching fire, including a Samsung phone that emitted smoke and forced a Southwest Airlines flight in Kentucky to evacuate passengers. The Consumer Product Safety Commission is investigating the incident.

The production change suggests fresh trouble for Samsung as it awaits the U.S. authorities' investigation into the replacement phones. It had promised that its new Note 7 devices with a green battery icon were safe.

The reports of replacement phones catching fire raise doubts over whether the battery is the only problem in the fire-prone smartphone as Samsung has said. When it issued a global recall on Sept. 2, Samsung blamed batteries provided by one of its two battery suppliers and assured consumers that other parts of the smartphones were fine.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Samsung changes Note 7 output schedule after fire reports
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Technology/2016/1010/Samsung-changes-Note-7-output-schedule-after-fire-reports
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe