In the face of new reports of supposedly battery-safe Samsung Galaxy Note 7 replacement units catching fire, Samsung has temporarily suspended production of the handsets. U.S. carriers AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon have all announced they will no longer offer replacement units.
CNBC reports the suspension of production of the Note 7 was done in cooperation with U.S. and Chinese authorities. (Some Chinese users have also reported their handsets catching fire.)
The move comes as new reports of Galaxy Note 7 replacement units catching fire. All of the reported incidents were said to have involved replacement units that were allegedly equipped with “safe” batteries.
On Wednesday of last week, a Southwest Airlines Louisville-to-Baltimore flight was evacuated before leaving the gate when a passenger’s Note 7 began smoking.
A Minnesota girl’s Note 7 caught fire on Saturday. The 13-year-old said she felt a weird, burning sensation” while holding her phone, suffering a minor thumb burn.
In another Saturday incident, a Kentucky man was diagnosed with acute bronchitis, following a trip to a local Emergency Room, after his Note 7 caught fire while he was asleep in his bed, filling his bedroom with smoke. “It wasn’t plugged in. It wasn’t anything, it was just sitting there,” said the man.
Sunday saw a report of another bedroom incident, as a Virginia-based owner of a Note 7 reported his device “just burst into flames while on the night stand.” Shawn Minter contacted The Verge after his Note 7 caught fire on his nightstand at 5:45AM. Later the same day, a Texas family reported their Note 7 had caught fire while they sat eating lunch together.
U.S. wireless carriers AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon have announced they will no longer offer replacement Note 7 units to users who have potentially affected devices. While Sprint hasn’t announced they will also officially halt sales of the device, they are expected to soon follow suit.
“Based on recent reports, we’re no longer exchanging new Note 7s at this time, pending further investigation of these reported incidents,” an AT&T representative told CNNMoney.
T-Mobile said it would suspend sales of all Note 7s, including replacement models. Customers can exchange their Note 7s with any device T-Mobile carries.
Some reports have indicated Samsung rushed the Galaxy Note 7 into production in an attempt to capitalize what company official believed would be a “boring” iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus release. Now, however, the move looks to have “blown up” in the South Korean firm’s corporate face.
While Samsung did issue a global recall for the Galaxy note 7 just before the release of the iPhone 7 lineup, the continued reports of even replacement units catching fire has become a public relations nightmare for the company. Some analysts are predicting that what could be the worst recall crisis in the firm’s history could cost it USD $5 billion in revenues.
