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note fire

Update: nine/10/2016: Samsung has formally recommended that all consumers terminate using the Milky way Note 7. "Samsung continues to ensure that consumer prophylactic remains our summit priority. Nosotros are asking users to ability down their Galaxy Note7s and exchange them now." says Tim Baxter, president of Samsung Electronics America. "New Note7 replacement devices will be issued to commutation program participants upon completion of the CPSC process. In the interim, consumers tin can render their Note7 for some other device."

There's yet no word on a replacement timeline, just consumers should stop using Note 7's if at all possible.

For the past few weeks, evidence has been mounting that all is non well with Samsung'due south Galaxy Note vii. Multiple mobile carriers have already announced substitution or refund programs and the new phablet has been linked to both a vehicle and a business firm burn. Now, the US Consumer Product Safety Committee has issued a formal statement recommending that owners immediately cease charging their devices and continue them powered off.

The statement notes:

CPSC and Samsung are working cooperatively to formally announce an official recall of the devices, as soon as possible. CPSC is working quickly to determine whether a replacement Galaxy Note7 is an acceptable remedy for Samsung or their telephone carriers to provide to consumers.

So far, Samsung has announced an exchange program, simply not a formal device recall. The fact that no recall has been initiated limits what the government tin can exercise — the FAA has issued guidelines that Milky way Annotation 7s shouldn't be stowed in luggage or charged on aircraft, for example, simply information technology can't formally ban the device. Similarly, it remains legal to sell or buy a Note 7 — though given the incertitude surrounding the product it's non a especially practiced idea. Singapore Airlines has banned the Note 7, while Quantas is requesting people non employ them.

Galaxy Note7 Samsung

Samsung has been dragging its feet on this issue from the get-go. Last week the visitor appear it had stopped shipments of the Note 7 and would piece of work with mobile carriers to arrange replacements or refunds for anyone that wanted ane. Contrary to what we thought at the time, it didn't actually announce a formal retrieve, and only said that such a motion was coming in the non-to-distant-future. Today's announcement by the CPSC is probably meant to underscore the demand for immediate activity. Samsung has stated that it believes the problem is minuscule, affecting just 24 phones out of every meg — but that's non comforting when thermal runaway in a mobile device can cause third-degree burns or substantial destruction of property.

This is an issue Samsung needs to get in front of, and it needs to get in front of it yesterday. The risk of fire may exist pocket-size in absolute terms, but high-profile conflagrations tend to play poorly and they certainly don't exercise anything to improve sales. If Samsung doesn't react shortly, it could find itself facing lawsuits from consumers who were injured (physically or otherwise) from its engineering mistakes. Left to fester, such wounds can destroy a company's reputation in a curt corporeality of time.