5 ms·

And yet I dont see anyone complaining about Intel processors being unable to do FP calculations. People made jokes for a while with the FDIV bug but Intel just

And yet I dont see anyone complaining about Intel processors being unable to do FP calculations. People made jokes for a while with the FDIV bug but Intel just did the recall and moved on. Samsung will get over it. So will consumers. The brand is a juggernaut.

fpgeek 10y ago
I don't know that they will. If the first recall had been enough - that they'd really found the problem, fixed it and made things up to their customers, I think they could have done well. Taking decisive, painful and effective action would have demonstrated their commitment to their customers. But they didn't solve the problem, gave people replacement devices they said were safe and were wrong about that again. I'm not suggesting malice here. I think that it is perfectly plausible (even likely) that they thought they had found and fixed the problem and were just wrong. But that doesn't really matter. They may not be malicious, but they are demonstrably incompetent when it comes to safety. That's probably worse.
- AlexDanger 10y ago
  Oh I agree this is not malice. Sounds like some battery supplier to Samsung screwed up. No excuses from Samsung QA but presumably the battery supplier really screwed up their QA or manufacturing processes. Even with the news that the Note 7 is effectively dead....I dont think this will be more than a blip on Samsung's history and some uncomfortable quarterly financial reports. I am certain they are not 'finished' in the sense that consumers will stop purchasing Samsung phones. Time will tell.
pjmlp 10y ago
Except there aren't really alternatives for PC compatible hardware, in what concerns x86 processors. AMD is nice and all, I do have a few computers with them, but they hardly matter worldwide in terms of marketshare. Samsung is another matter, there are plenty of smartphone brands to choose from and compatibility isn't a requirement.
- AlexDanger 10y ago
  There arent currently alternatives in the x86 market. Certainly Intel were the biggest back then, but the market share was around 70-75% not 85%+ that is it now. I remember when this FDIV bug happened in ~94-95, at the time there were plenty of x86 manufacturers. AMD presented probably the biggest competitive threat to Intel. IBM, Cyrix, VIA were all cheap-and-cheerful CPUs that found their way into plenty of office desktops via OEMs. AMD were a serious problem for Intel around 1998-2001 with their K7 architecture. The Athlons and Durons were incredible bang for buck and owned the desktop high-end mindshare. Anyway that's a discussion for another time :) Back to phones - Samsung dominate the Android phone space. Time will tell if people move away but history suggests they'll be perfectly fine. People still drive Toyota despite product defects killing people. I guarantee in 12 months people wont give a shit if the latest Samsung phone is a top performer. Phones are a status symbol. Safety rarely trumps fashion in the consumer retail world.

fpgeek 10y ago

I don't know that they will. If the first recall had been enough - that they'd really found the problem, fixed it and made things up to their customers, I think they could have done well. Taking decisive, painful and effective action would have demonstrated their commitment to their customers. But they didn't solve the problem, gave people replacement devices they said were safe and were wrong about that again. I'm not suggesting malice here. I think that it is perfectly plausible (even likely) that they thought they had found and fixed the problem and were just wrong. But that doesn't really matter. They may not be malicious, but they are demonstrably incompetent when it comes to safety. That's probably worse.

AlexDanger 10y ago
Oh I agree this is not malice. Sounds like some battery supplier to Samsung screwed up. No excuses from Samsung QA but presumably the battery supplier really screwed up their QA or manufacturing processes. Even with the news that the Note 7 is effectively dead....I dont think this will be more than a blip on Samsung's history and some uncomfortable quarterly financial reports. I am certain they are not 'finished' in the sense that consumers will stop purchasing Samsung phones. Time will tell.

pjmlp 10y ago

Except there aren't really alternatives for PC compatible hardware, in what concerns x86 processors. AMD is nice and all, I do have a few computers with them, but they hardly matter worldwide in terms of marketshare. Samsung is another matter, there are plenty of smartphone brands to choose from and compatibility isn't a requirement.

AlexDanger 10y ago
There arent currently alternatives in the x86 market. Certainly Intel were the biggest back then, but the market share was around 70-75% not 85%+ that is it now. I remember when this FDIV bug happened in ~94-95, at the time there were plenty of x86 manufacturers. AMD presented probably the biggest competitive threat to Intel. IBM, Cyrix, VIA were all cheap-and-cheerful CPUs that found their way into plenty of office desktops via OEMs. AMD were a serious problem for Intel around 1998-2001 with their K7 architecture. The Athlons and Durons were incredible bang for buck and owned the desktop high-end mindshare. Anyway that's a discussion for another time :) Back to phones - Samsung dominate the Android phone space. Time will tell if people move away but history suggests they'll be perfectly fine. People still drive Toyota despite product defects killing people. I guarantee in 12 months people wont give a shit if the latest Samsung phone is a top performer. Phones are a status symbol. Safety rarely trumps fashion in the consumer retail world.