Samsung Still Clueless As To Why Its Galaxy Note 7 Overheated

The biggest smartphone vendor in the world is still at a loss as to how and why its Galaxy Note 7 suffered overheating and exploding issues -- Samsung admitted as much during a shareholder meeting held recently this week. And because it can not ascertain the cause of its phablet’s problems, for sure, it may not be able to offer a solution soon.

This is important because right after the holiday shopping soon, Samsung will most certainly be busy preparing to launch the Galaxy S8, its flagship devices for the year 2017. And it needs to get to the root of the problem so that it can ensure its customers that what happened to the Galaxy Note 7 will be repeated with the Galaxy S8.

It is no secret that the recall of the Galaxy Note 7 (and another after that) has severely damaged Samsung’s reputation, especially when it comes to the quality of its smartphone devices. Moreover, that damage is starting to translate to lackluster sales for the South Korean tech giant. While the company remains the number one Android phone maker in the United States, that could change soon if it can not convince its customer base that its devices are safe.

The Galaxy Note 7 debacle is tricky. Phone makers frequently have to build on the design, specifications, and features of a current smartphone offering. In the case of Samsung’s Note lineup of phablets, it will be hard to move on with new models when the company is not sure which aspects or which components will function properly.

What happened with the Galaxy Note 7 is clearly related to the battery, but to date, Samsung is yet to determine if the battery itself is the problem, or something else that has affected the battery, or a combination of a lot of things. It is worth noting that even though Samsung has tried to replace the battery supplier for its phablet, some supposedly safe replacement units still had overheating issues. 

In an ultra-competitive industry such as mobile, any misstep has costly consequences. But even more damaging in the long run is a failure to address and learn from that misstep going forward. Samsung knows this all too well now -- simply put, the South Korean mobile giant can not afford any mistake now, or see its dominant market share start to erode. And other phone makers are quite eager to take advantage, if they have not already.