Samsung appears to be neck deep in waters right now, as the company has issued a global recall for its Galaxy Note 7 units after numerous reports worldwide of the latest flagship catching fire or exploding. What seemed like just an ordinary incident in China has escalated so quickly that the Korean manufacturer had to recall all Note 7’s. As many as 2.5 million units of the phablet have been recalled, and according to Korea Herald, the company will stop using Samsung SDI batteries for the Galaxy Note 7.
The significance about this decision is the fact that 70 percent of the Galaxy Note 7’s batteries are supplied by Samsung SDI. The remaining 30 percent are supplied by ATL, a Chinese battery maker. When Samsung introduced non-removable batteries with the Galaxy S6 series last year, Samsung SDI didn’t really manage to supply the batteries though it has began developing them since 2014. As a result, Samsung might be looking to purchase more batteries from ATL, or even rope in LG Chem, a familiar name in supplying Samsung’s smartphone batteries.
Korean Investment & Securities’ analyst Lee Seung-hyuck has claimed that Samsung SDI will most likely bear the expense of the battery parts from this recall. The battery maker is also expected to make a loss of 18 billion won (RM 65 million) in Q3 including the cost of the recall. As for Samsung Electronics, German bank Deutsche has predicted that the company will spend up to 1.5 trillion won (RM 5.5 billion) for the recall of 2.5 million units.
It might look like Samsung has faltered in its attempt to rival Apple when the latter launches its iPhone 7 series later this week. How do you think the Galaxy Note 7 will fare when the iPhone 7 lineup releases? Let us know your thoughts at the comments section below!
Source: Korea Herald