Samsung Electronics continues to reel from the effects of defective batteries in its latest Galaxy Note 7 smartphone. In fact, airlines worldwide have banned the smart phones on their planes as a safety precaution. How does Samsung respond to the controversy and how it will affect the company moving forward?
Samsung Electronics is in damage control mode.
Fears of exploding batteries have forced the company to pull its latest device from 10 markets.
In South Korea, Samsung began offering free Galaxy Note 7 exchanges this week.
Despite the hassle, customers say it’s the least the company can do.
"There’s no way to change the past. The incident has already happened. What Samsung has done in response, I’ve heard people say they’re doing a good job. But I don’t think they have any other choice. They must continue to focus on customer service at this point," said Cha Myung-Guk, Samsung smartphone user.
"Overall, hesitation toward the Samsung brand will create a lost opportunity of about three to four million units for Samsung in the September to December time frame. So there will be a slight dip in market share I believe. But Q1, things will probably change," said Tom Kang, research director of Counterpoint Technology Market Research.
Samsung is offering a software update in South Korea which will only allow batteries to charge up to 60 percent full.
It also plans to resume sales of Galaxy Note 7s here on September 28th, while it reviews circumstances in other markets.
As the company moves to limit the fallout from the recall, it may also present the company an opportunity to strengthen its customer service credentials.
"It might actually help Samsung as it sets a benchmark, a new benchmark of quality, so overall in the long term, this will strengthen Samsung’s brand because they kind of set a certain standard of how they value their customers," Tong said.
Local reports in South Korea say Samsung exchanged roughly 20,000 phones with suspect batteries on the first day.
But only time will tell whether the company can salvage its image as a premium smartphone maker.
