Samsung will hold a press conference this coming Sunday, in which it will reveal its findings as to the causes of last year’s Galaxy Note 7 smartphone fires and explosions. The company is expected to reveal the results of several independent investigations into the fiasco.
In addition to its own internal findings, Samsung will present results from “expert organizations” that conducted their own independent investigation into the cause of the fires, said the South Korean electronics firm in a statement on Thursday.
“Samsung Electronics, as well as independent expert organizations who conducted their own investigation into various aspects of the Galaxy Note 7 incidents, will share their findings,” the statement reads, (via The Verge). “Samsung will discuss the findings of the investigations and unveil new measures Samsung has implemented in response to the incidents.”
The Battery Did It!
The Wall Street Journal reports its sources tell them the investigations will show the issue causing the explosive problems with the handsets was due to an “an irregularly sized battery”:
Samsung’s report on Monday will conclude that the issue with the batteries from Samsung SDI was an irregularly sized battery that didn’t fit properly in the phone, according to the people, who said that the incongruence caused the overheating. In the Galaxy Note 7 phones carrying batteries made by ATL, the flaw centers on a manufacturing issue resulting from the quick ramp-up in production of replacement phones, these people said. It wasn’t clear what the manufacturing issues were.
ATL and Samsung SDI declined to comment.
To address federal regulators concerns, WSJ’s sources say the company has created an eight-step process that includes more testing, inspections, and manufacturing quality assurances, among other measures.
Samsung Allegedly Rushed the Galaxy Note 7 to Market
It has long been believed that Samsung rushed the release of the Galaxy Note 7 in order to beat Apple’s iPhone 7 to market. This lead to the company imposing tighter deadlines on suppliers, which may have then caused the faulty batteries not being discovered before the handset went to market.
Samsung initially announced the recall of some 2.5 million Note 7 handsets in September, saying the fires were caused by a manufacturing process issue at one of its suppliers. However, when replacement handsets which were powered by what Samsung said were safe batteries from another supplier continued to catch fire, the company was forced to halt all sales of the device and recall all of the affected handsets. Samsung’s operating profit is said to have taken a $5.2 billion hit because of the fiasco.
