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This is completely not a technical decision, it's a branding and marketing decision. Even though the percentage is vanishingly small, Samsung cannot be associa

This is completely not a technical decision, it's a branding and marketing decision. Even though the percentage is vanishingly small, Samsung cannot be associated with exploding phones. Even airlines warn against Samsung Note 7s specifically during preflight briefings. They're amputating part of their business to stop contagion to the rest of their brand.

userbinator 10y ago
I suppose this could mean the Note 8 (7+?) will come a bit sooner.
- jimmywanger 10y ago
  I don't know. The brand is so tainted, they might come up with a whole new name. That's what I'd do, but then again I'm not a highly paid marketing executive.
  - bdcravens 10y ago
    Probably rebranded to something like S8 Pro or Stylus or Write or similar.
djsumdog 10y ago
> Even though the percentage is vanishingly small I thought so too. I meant it's just been three explosions, or so I heard. However this article claims 97 incidents with breakdowns on overheating vs burning. It seems pretty significant. I mean, not statically against devices in the wild, but it takes a relatively few amount of safety incidents to question an entire product line.
- yeukhon 10y ago
  I read more than three, although I am not sure if all of them have been confirmed.
- coldtea 10y ago
  >I thought so too. I meant it's just been three explosions, or so I heard. Far more than 3. It's already more than 3 on the "replacement" "fixed" 7s -- it's dozens for the first version, including in planes, while driving, etc.
supercoder 10y ago
Doesn't help the engineers weren't able to solve the issue though.
astrodust 10y ago
This "vanishingly small" number is still way, way too high. Five in a week? If there's one thing you don't want your electronics to do it's potentially kill people. There was a rash of exploding battery cells in the 2006-2007 era where Apple even issued a recall. At the time Apple was still using off-the-shelf cells and hadn't started to make their own batteries. This affected many other vendors using the same suppliers. Even Boeing's planes were not immune to battery problems, with the 787 famously suffering some serious issues, including fires. Battery technology is something that's very hard to get absolutely right, to render something safe enough it won't explode. You want a lot of "sigmas" in your quality to avoid any serious defects. I don't know what Apple does to their batteries, but the sorts of abuse they can apparently endure without catching fire is remarkable: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iy5kAY5SqEk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iy5kAY5SqEk
- piyush_soni 10y ago
  I don't know what Apple does to their batteries >> iPhone 6 (/Plus) has exploded quite a few times actually (not pasting links here, a simple search shows many). And the iPhone 7 too : http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/science-technology/719587/Apple-iPhone-Explode-Battery http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/science-technology/71958... Most of the other phones are not exploding (other brands/Samsung's other phones) in significant numbers, so Note 7 is a one off case.
  - astrodust 10y ago
    I don't know what Samsung did to cause all these explosions, but I hope these are thoroughly investigated. If it's a manufacturing problem, that's one thing, but I have a sneaking suspicion this could boil down to software. You can measure your manufacturing process very closely, but testing embedded software, such as in the battery itself, is a total nightmare by comparison.
coldtea 10y ago
>This is completely not a technical decision, it's a branding and marketing decision. Even though the percentage is vanishingly small Because engineers are OK if "only" 1 in 100,000 devices explodes and hurts someone?
- tiatia 10y ago
  Depends on the device. Could be a totally reasonable number. Remeber the flying coffin? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_F-104_Starfighter#Safety_record https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_F-104_Starfighter#Saf...
  - coldtea 10y ago
    I don't think many engineers find something like "the flying coffin" as having a reasonable number of fails...
catdog 10y ago
> Even though the percentage is vanishingly small, Samsung cannot be associated with exploding phones. It's still high enough to indicate a general manufacturing problem. To ditch it completely may mostly be a marketing decision but to put production on hold for some time to investigate and really fix the root cause seems to be reasonable. It may also help internal processes making sure that no additional item from a possible faulty batch ever gets sold accidentally. Maybe we will see a similar device in a few months, maybe branded differently, maybe with a redesigned casing, maybe some marketing campaign showing how well they've protected the battery this time.
nashashmi 10y ago
I disagree. Samsung seemed to have proactively started replacing phones. Even before the media hyped it up. When they tried replacing, it still would overheat. Eventually management gave up mostly because as others have said they couldn't figure out why the phones were heating up in the first place.
hiram112 10y ago
Can confirm. Just took a flight yesterday and noticed the Galaxy 7 warning had become part of the official spiel read by the gate attendants when announcing flight info. One of the more comical attendees turned it into a joke, something like '... If you would like to stow your larger carry on, please come to the counter.... If you have a Samsung Galaxy 7, please place it in the garbage prior to entering the aircraft...'. It was a crowded flight with a long line and already delayed. He was just trying to lighten up the atmosphere, and everyone did laugh, so it was clever. For Samsung, this is a marketing nightmare for one their most profitable brands.
- Stratoscope 10y ago
  Especially since the flight attendant didn't didn't say "Note 7" but Galaxy 7.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - hiram112 10y ago
    Haha. Thanks

userbinator 10y ago

I suppose this could mean the Note 8 (7+?) will come a bit sooner.

jimmywanger 10y ago
I don't know. The brand is so tainted, they might come up with a whole new name. That's what I'd do, but then again I'm not a highly paid marketing executive.
- bdcravens 10y ago
  Probably rebranded to something like S8 Pro or Stylus or Write or similar.

djsumdog 10y ago

> Even though the percentage is vanishingly small I thought so too. I meant it's just been three explosions, or so I heard. However this article claims 97 incidents with breakdowns on overheating vs burning. It seems pretty significant. I mean, not statically against devices in the wild, but it takes a relatively few amount of safety incidents to question an entire product line.

yeukhon 10y ago
I read more than three, although I am not sure if all of them have been confirmed.
coldtea 10y ago
>I thought so too. I meant it's just been three explosions, or so I heard. Far more than 3. It's already more than 3 on the "replacement" "fixed" 7s -- it's dozens for the first version, including in planes, while driving, etc.

supercoder 10y ago

Doesn't help the engineers weren't able to solve the issue though.

astrodust 10y ago

This "vanishingly small" number is still way, way too high. Five in a week? If there's one thing you don't want your electronics to do it's potentially kill people. There was a rash of exploding battery cells in the 2006-2007 era where Apple even issued a recall. At the time Apple was still using off-the-shelf cells and hadn't started to make their own batteries. This affected many other vendors using the same suppliers. Even Boeing's planes were not immune to battery problems, with the 787 famously suffering some serious issues, including fires. Battery technology is something that's very hard to get absolutely right, to render something safe enough it won't explode. You want a lot of "sigmas" in your quality to avoid any serious defects. I don't know what Apple does to their batteries, but the sorts of abuse they can apparently endure without catching fire is remarkable: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iy5kAY5SqEk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iy5kAY5SqEk

piyush_soni 10y ago
I don't know what Apple does to their batteries >> iPhone 6 (/Plus) has exploded quite a few times actually (not pasting links here, a simple search shows many). And the iPhone 7 too : http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/science-technology/719587/Apple-iPhone-Explode-Battery http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/science-technology/71958... Most of the other phones are not exploding (other brands/Samsung's other phones) in significant numbers, so Note 7 is a one off case.
- astrodust 10y ago
  I don't know what Samsung did to cause all these explosions, but I hope these are thoroughly investigated. If it's a manufacturing problem, that's one thing, but I have a sneaking suspicion this could boil down to software. You can measure your manufacturing process very closely, but testing embedded software, such as in the battery itself, is a total nightmare by comparison.

coldtea 10y ago

>This is completely not a technical decision, it's a branding and marketing decision. Even though the percentage is vanishingly small Because engineers are OK if "only" 1 in 100,000 devices explodes and hurts someone?

tiatia 10y ago
Depends on the device. Could be a totally reasonable number. Remeber the flying coffin? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_F-104_Starfighter#Safety_record https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_F-104_Starfighter#Saf...
- coldtea 10y ago
  I don't think many engineers find something like "the flying coffin" as having a reasonable number of fails...

catdog 10y ago

> Even though the percentage is vanishingly small, Samsung cannot be associated with exploding phones. It's still high enough to indicate a general manufacturing problem. To ditch it completely may mostly be a marketing decision but to put production on hold for some time to investigate and really fix the root cause seems to be reasonable. It may also help internal processes making sure that no additional item from a possible faulty batch ever gets sold accidentally. Maybe we will see a similar device in a few months, maybe branded differently, maybe with a redesigned casing, maybe some marketing campaign showing how well they've protected the battery this time.

nashashmi 10y ago

I disagree. Samsung seemed to have proactively started replacing phones. Even before the media hyped it up. When they tried replacing, it still would overheat. Eventually management gave up mostly because as others have said they couldn't figure out why the phones were heating up in the first place.

hiram112 10y ago

Can confirm. Just took a flight yesterday and noticed the Galaxy 7 warning had become part of the official spiel read by the gate attendants when announcing flight info. One of the more comical attendees turned it into a joke, something like '... If you would like to stow your larger carry on, please come to the counter.... If you have a Samsung Galaxy 7, please place it in the garbage prior to entering the aircraft...'. It was a crowded flight with a long line and already delayed. He was just trying to lighten up the atmosphere, and everyone did laugh, so it was clever. For Samsung, this is a marketing nightmare for one their most profitable brands.

Stratoscope 10y ago
Especially since the flight attendant didn't didn't say "Note 7" but Galaxy 7.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- hiram112 10y ago
  Haha. Thanks