(CNN) When Samsung unveiled the Galaxy Note 7 smartphone back in August, with its much-lauded battery life, the South Korean firm looked like it was on to a winner -- until the phones started bursting into flames.

Initially, the tech giant cited "battery cell issues" in September but since then, radio silence on the cause of the fault.

Not only did the Seoul-based firm face an embarrassing worldwide recall, but subsequent replacement phones also faced similar issues.

Attention has continued to focus on the phone's lithium-ion battery.

Having failed to fix the disastrous problem, Samsung announced a permanent end to production of the troubled smartphone on Tuesday.

With many of our electronics using these lithium-ion batteries, consumers have been left wondering if they are safe. Here's what you need to know:

Batteries are containers that can convert chemical energy to electrical energy through the transfer of electrons from the negative plate -- or anode -- at one end of the battery to the cathode -- or positive plate at the other end.

But traditional batteries have a limited number of units of convertible chemical energy. The difference with the lithium-ion battery is that it is rechargeable -- a game-changer in tech innovation.

"Lithium is the lightest metal in the world which is why they use it but it is also extremely volatile, Almost every laptop on the planet, almost every smartphone is a standard formulation which is cobalt-oxide and lithium. But then there are competing formulations."

So why do some of them catch fire?

Levine says speculation among researchers suggests that the battery manufacturing process could be the source of the smartphone fires, but ultimately no one knows. And the lack of information creates consumer anxiety which could ripple out to the wider electronics industries.

"It potentially tarnishes all the manufacturers," said Levine. "How do we know that Apple or the new Google phone is not going to have the same problem?"

However, some experts say the fact the high-end phone has been discontinued points towards a design flaw.

Could manufacturing be the problem?

This is by not the first time lithium-ion batteries have hit the headlines.

Although the Samsung phone's battery is different to those in airliners, Boeing faced similar issues with lithium-ion batteries in their Dreamliner aircraft. Their entire global fleet was grounded in 2013 after multiple instances of overheating batteries in Boston and Tokyo.

At least two fatal cargo jet crashes are believed by investigating authorities to have been caused by fires on board as a result of these lithium-ion batteries. In 2010, a Boeing 747 crashed in Dubai, killing two crew members while an Asiana Airlines 747 crashed off South Korea the following year, also killing two crew members.

No, according to Levine, who says consumers are not at immediate risk from phones in their pockets blowing up.

He said: "We know right now that the problem has been confined to this one model... that it hasn't been something that has risen chronically, at least in any other Samsung device, [or] at any other manufacturer.

"So the quick answer is that [consumers] shouldn't be concerned but that doesn't mean they won't be."</s>WASHINGTON: US telecommunications firm AT&T and German rival T-Mobile announced they would halt exchanges of recalled Samsung Galaxy Note7 smartphones pending investigations into reports of fire-prone batteries.

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) issued a recall on September 15 of the Galaxy Note7, the newest smartphone by Samsung Electronics, and said they could be exchanged for a new version of the Note7 with a battery modified to prevent serious fires and burns.

Since then, there have been reports that the batteries in the new Galaxy Note7 devices have overheated and been involved in fires.

“Based upon recent customer reports and ongoing investigations by Samsung, AT&T is no longer exchanging customers into new Note7s at this time while we wait for the outcome of the investigations,” AT&T said in a statement.

AT&T said it would still offer customers the option to exchange that device for another Samsung smartphone or other device of their choice.

T-Mobile said that it too was halting the exchanges, as well as sales.

“While Samsung investigates multiple reports of issues, T-Mobile is temporarily suspending all sales of the new Note7 and exchanges for replacement Note7 devices,” the company said in a statement.

AT&T said it had not been selling Note7s since Samsung and the CPSC instructed the company to stop selling Note7 devices purchased before September 15.

Samsung decided on September 2 to halt the sale of the Galaxy Note7 and recall those sold to fix the lithium-ion battery problem.

But this decision is unlikely to ease consumer worries amid the new reported incidents linked to the replacement phones.

According to some analysts, the cost of the recall operation could be up to $2 billion. The South Korean company issued Friday a stronger-than-expected operating profit forecast for the third quarter despite the impact of the recall.

Samsung, the world’s leading smartphone maker, is facing growing competition from Chinese firms, its historic US rival Apple as well as Google, which just announced its own smartphone. AFP</s>Samsung Electronics Co. is corporate royalty in South Korea. It’s also a company recognized for its marketing smarts and engineering savvy worldwide, so much so that consulting firm Interbrand ranked it as the world’s seventh most valuable in its 2016 survey, ahead of Amazon and Mercedes-Benz.

So how is it that the pride of South Korea has so botched the recall of 2.5 million Galaxy Note 7 smartphones after complaints of exploding batteries — and a ton of negative publicity by the media in the U.S., Europe and China, not to mention the vast echo chamber of social media?

When it recalled its phones last month, it assured consumers it had diagnosed the problem and that its replacements were safe. Not so it turns out: Customers reported the lithium batteries in new phones went up in flames too, in some instances. On Tuesday, Samsung took the dramatic step of killing off the Note 7 for good.

“This is a calamity,” said Srinivas Reddy, director at the Center for Marketing Excellence at Singapore Management University. “The threat for Samsung is how soon they can get back. If they don’t get back soon, it provides a vacuum for others to creep in.”

The company has not said how many new or replacement phones will be affected. Analysts estimated that the original recall would cost between $1 billion and $2 billion, but that figure will now certainly rise.

The move sent Samsung shares down 8 percent on Tuesday, vaporizing $17 billion in market value. Samsung’s sterling brand image built up over decades is at risk unless the management team led by Vice Chairman Jay Y. Lee, 48, doesn’t get out in front of the crisis soon.

“It’s a very critical moment for Samsung,” said Martin Roll, a brand strategist and author of Asian Brand Strategy. “How Samsung is handling this crisis is kind of a way for Samsung to step into the modern era because Asian firms have only started to emerge as very iconic, contemporary consumer brands like Apple. The history of Samsung as a brand is still being written.”

Some six weeks after the first reports of exploding phones surfaced, Samsung engineers, as well as U.S. and South Korean government investigators, have yet to discover why lithium batteries in the company’s new smartphone product overheat and in some cases explode.

The Korean Agency for Technology and Standards (KATS) said in an emailed statement Tuesday, it is investigating the possibility the Note 7 smartphones may have a new defect. An official at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy didn’t rule out the possibility that the problem may be tied to the overall product design or production. Samsung has said it’s working with investigators and still trying to identify the source of the battery problem.

Whether the Samsung brand takes a lasting hit will depend, in part, on how long the mystery of the Note 7 batteries continues and whether the company is perceived by consumers as stonewalling.

“Samsung must come clean with a thorough explanation as the previous explanations don’t completely add up now,” said Mark Newman, an analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein in Hong Kong.

The company needs to find out the exact cause and communicate it clearly to consumers, according to Yoo Jong Woo, an analyst at Korean Investment & Securities Co. “I think the company will be able to recover from the blow to its image over time, if the problem does not spread to other phones,” he said.

Brand strategist Roll agreed that consumers will be forgiving if this is viewed as an aberration at an otherwise reliable company. “Consumers need to be kept in the loop here because they’ve put trust in Samsung’s brand,” Roll said. “It’s a partnership.”

Until Samsung can come up with some answers, it faces thorny challenges. Six analysts surveyed by Bloomberg had originally estimates that Samsung would ship 13 million Note 7s this year. Now it has a hole in its product lineup, just as Apple begins selling its iPhone 7 and high-end devices from Google hit the market.

There’s also the risk that the Note 7 troubles spill over to other smartphones in the Galaxy lineup, dampening overall sales momentum against key rivals such as Apple and Huawei Technologies Co. Samsung faces a serious image problem in China, where customers and government-owned media have railed about Samsung’s handling of its recall.

“They’re done in China,” said Shaun Rein, managing director of Shanghai-based China Market Research Group. “For the Chinese, they don’t differentiate between the Note 7 and all Samsung phones. So they’re not willing to buy any Samsung phones right now.”

Back in South Korea, some consumers are more forgiving. Several customers shopping at a smartphone retail store in Seoul’s Jonggak neighborhood shrugged off suggestions the latest crisis could hurt Samsung’s image. They said they would still consider Samsung phone as an option despite reports of Note 7 catching on fire.

One customer said it was a matter of national pride. “As a South Korean we should purchase Samsung phones because we should think about the country,” said Shin Young-su, 50, who is self-employed. He said he was encouraging more young Koreans to buy Samsung phones to help the company.

Another customer who prefers Apple’s iPhone because of functionality with his other Apple devices said he didn’t think the latest crisis would hurt the Samsung brand. “The igniting issue is a problem for only few phones,” Kim Sung-min, 38, who would only say he works in the service industry. “Even if a phone ignites in my hands, I believe Samsung will take care of everything for me. I believe in the brand.”

Samsung will almost certainly take a meaningful financial hit in the fourth quarter from the Note 7, according to Bernstein’s Newman. That said, he estimates the entire Note line only accounts for 8.5 percent of his 2017 net profit forecast and thinks Tuesday’s market reaction was overdone.

Dan Baker, an analyst at Morningstar Inc. in Hong Kong, pegs the direct cost from the initial Note 7 recall at as much as 1 trillion won ($892 million). “But the damage to reputation and future sales is probably going to be bigger,” he said. “It’s not just the phone: their whole ecosystem is behind this — displays, memory chips. If their phone sales drop, then their sales of other parts of the business will be impacted. It’s a spiral.”

Baker expects Samsung to try to shift the focus to the next version of the smartphone. “They’re probably going to double the testing on it,” he said. “They don’t want this to happen again. There will be people’s jobs on the line.”</s>The article you have been looking for has expired and is not longer available on our system. This is due to newswire licensing terms.</s>Samsung has halted sales of its Galaxy Note 7 smartphone and urged owners to switch them off following reports that handsets issued as replacements for faulty models had caught fire.

The Korean technology giant’s share price tumbled seven per cent yesterday, wiping billions of pounds off its value, as the future of the flagship handset was thrown into jeopardy.

The £740 smartphone was due to relaunch in the UK at the end of October after sales were delayed amid concerns that the mobiles were at risk of overheating or catching fire.

Samsung said it was confident it had overcome an issue with the devices’ battery after a reported 2.5 million handsets were recalled worldwide. The manufacturer said it is ‘working with relevant regulatory bodies to investigate the recently reported cases involving the Galaxy Note 7’.. “Because consumers’ safety remains our top priority, Samsung will ask all carrier and retail partners globally to stop sales and exchanges of the Galaxy Note 7 while the investigation is taking place,” the firm added in a statement.

US officials said they were probing at least five incidents of fire or overheating reported since Samsung first recalled the devices in September. Meanwhile authorities in South Korea said they had found a new product defect in the Note 7, but did not identify the issue.

Samsung said it remained ‘committed to working diligently with appropriate regulatory authorities to take all necessary steps to resolve the situation’.

“Consumers with either an original Galaxy Note 7 or replacement Galaxy Note 7 device should power down and stop using the device and take advantage of the remedies available,” the firm said.

The UK release date for the Note 7 had been moved to October 28 after Samsung ordered the recall following dozens of reports of devices overheating worldwide. The firm then began a programme offering replacement phones to consumers who had pre-ordered the device in the UK.

The company said 45,000 Note 7s had been sold in Europe through the pre-order campaign - the majority in the UK - and more than 75 per cent had since been replaced with either a Note 7 or another Samsung handset.

Samsung said in September that it was’confident’ it had completely overcome the problem and was ready to launch the device. However, concerns were raised over further defects beyond the battery cell, following several reports in the US of phones catching fire that showed the green battery icon Samsung added to replacement phones to mark them as safe.</s>Samsung has halted sales of its Galaxy Note 7 smartphone and urged owners to switch them off following reports that handsets issued as replacements for faulty models had caught fire.

The Korean technology giant's share price tumbled seven per cent yesterday, wiping billions of pounds off its value, as the future of the flagship handset was thrown into jeopardy.

The £740 smartphone was due to relaunch in the UK at the end of October after sales were delayed amid concerns that the mobiles were at risk of overheating or catching fire.

Samsung said it was confident it had overcome an issue with the devices' battery after a reported 2.5 million handsets were recalled worldwide.

The manufacturer said it is 'working with relevant regulatory bodies to investigate the recently reported cases involving the Galaxy Note 7'..

"Because consumers' safety remains our top priority, Samsung will ask all carrier and retail partners globally to stop sales and exchanges of the Galaxy Note 7 while the investigation is taking place," the firm added in a statement.

US officials said they were probing at least five incidents of fire or overheating reported since Samsung first recalled the devices in September.

Meanwhile authorities in South Korea said they had found a new product defect in the Note 7, but did not identify the issue.

Samsung said it remained 'committed to working diligently with appropriate regulatory authorities to take all necessary steps to resolve the situation'.

"Consumers with either an original Galaxy Note 7 or replacement Galaxy Note 7 device should power down and stop using the device and take advantage of the remedies available," the firm said.

The UK release date for the Note 7 had been moved to October 28 after Samsung ordered the recall following dozens of reports of devices overheating worldwide.

The firm then began a programme offering replacement phones to consumers who had pre-ordered the device in the UK.

The company said 45,000 Note 7s had been sold in Europe through the pre-order campaign - the majority in the UK - and more than 75 per cent had since been replaced with either a Note 7 or another Samsung handset.

Samsung said in September that it was'confident' it had completely overcome the problem and was ready to launch the device.

However, concerns were raised over further defects beyond the battery cell, following several reports in the US of phones catching fire that showed the green battery icon Samsung added to replacement phones to mark them as safe.</s>So recently Samsung has been one of the most talked about OEM in the mobile device realm and it hasn’t been good news. Their Note 7 smartphone faced some battery issues that resulted in it being recalled in September, and again early October before it was quite recently cancelled completely. Now of course i’m sure […]

Articles appeared first on Techzim;

Note 7 recall frenzy: Is it worth it to buy a smartphone from legit retailers?</s>SEOUL, South Korea – Samsung’s crisis with its Galaxy Note 7 smartphone deepened Monday as the company confirmed it has adjusted its production following reports that newly released versions offered as replacements for recalled fire-prone devices have also overheated or caught fire.

The company, however, did not confirm or deny a report by South Korea’s Yonhap news agency earlier Monday that it has suspended production of the phones.

In a statement and in a regulatory filing, Samsung Electronics said it is “temporarily” adjusting the Galaxy Note 7 production schedule and production volume to “ensure quality and safety matters.” The company added that it will issue an update when more details are available.

Before the reports of a production suspension emerged, U.S. phone retailers AT&T and T-Mobile had already opted to stop giving new Note 7 replacement smartphones to consumers.

Samsung and U.S. authorities are investigating multiple reports of new Note 7 replacement smartphones catching fire, including a Samsung phone that emitted smoke and forced a Southwest Airlines flight in Kentucky to evacuate passengers. The Consumer Product Safety Commission is investigating the incident.

The production change suggests fresh trouble for Samsung as it awaits the U.S. authorities’ investigation into the replacement phones. It had promised that its new Note 7 devices with a green battery icon were safe.

The reports of replacement phones catching fire raise doubts over whether the battery is the only problem as Samsung has said. When it issued a global recall on Sept. 2, Samsung blamed batteries provided by one of its two battery suppliers.

and assured consumers that other parts of the smartphones were fine.</s>NEW YORK — Yes, you heard that right. Samsung is asking owners of its fire-prone Galaxy Note 7 to do something crazy: “power down and stop using the device.”

In an age when smartphones have become extensions of ourselves, the last thing we look at before falling asleep and the first thing we grab in the morning, this is all but unthinkable, even at the dinner table, even on the toilet.

Risking a battery fire might seem like a small price to pay for obsessively checking your latest Instagram “likes,” catching up on e-mail, Skyping your grandkids across the country, getting directions, confirming your travel itinerary, reading the news, searching for a dinner recipe, hailing a ride and so on.

For those traveling with children, a long flight without a smartphone to serve as distraction is akin to torture.

Power down and stop using the device? You might as well go live in a cave in a distant mountain (if you can get there, since you no longer have GPS). According to the Pew Research Center, 43 percent of the world’s population uses a smartphone. Rates are highest in places such as South Korea (88 percent), Australia (77 percent) and Israel (74 percent).

And use it they do. We check Facebook so often that the company no longer just measures its users on a monthly basis. A more important number is how many people check in on a daily basis. In June, more than 1 billion people checked Facebook on a mobile device at least once a day.

In a report on global mobile device usage, the consulting firm Deloitte found the obvious, namely that “device obsession is deepening” and that people are using their phones for “everything from watching TV to simply crossing the road.” Some of us even use the phones while crossing the road, which is not the safest thing in the world.

A small 2015 study by Nottingham Trent University that tracked 18- to 33-year-olds found that they checked their phones an average of 85 times a day — often without realizing.

Entire industries have sprung up to try to pry us away from our gadgets, such as phone-free summer camps for adults, anti-texting-and-driving apps and apps that track how much time you spend on your phone.

As such, it’s not surprising that smartphone owners suddenly deprived of this extra limb are finding ways around the inconvenience.

“I am currently using my tablet that has AT&T number sync. I have a Bluetooth headset connected that allows me to make and receive calls. It also can receive texts, but it works marginal at best,” said Leo Langelier III, who lives in North Berwick, Maine.

His Note 7 — the replacement model — started to emit smoke in the car while he was traveling with is family. While his family is fine, he has not been able to get a replacement and said he will be reactivating an older phone he has at home until he can get everything cleared up.

Adam Siemaszko, who returned his Note 7 to a Best Buy in Manhattan, said a co-worker was kind enough to lend him an old iPhone 5S until I can get a new one. He decided to get the new Pixel phone from Google, as he’s lost his trust in Samsung. But there’s a five- to six-week wait.

“Being phoneless is awful,” he said. “What I don’t think a lot of people think about is just how reliant we have been with the modern flagships.”

Siemaszko said he got used to taking notes on the Note 7 using its special S pen and running two apps side by side at once. The iPhone 5S came out in 2013 and even the latest iPhone, the 7, lacks these options.

“I feel incredibly limited on this 5S,” he said. “They took my tool away, and the only way to get something else is to jump through hoops.”</s>(CNN) When Samsung unveiled the Galaxy Note 7 smartphone back in August, with its much-lauded battery life, the South Korean firm looked like it was on to a winner -- until the phones started bursting into flames.

Initially, the tech giant cited "battery cell issues" in September but since then, radio silence on the cause of the fault.

Not only did the Seoul-based firm face an embarrassing worldwide recall, but subsequent replacement phones also faced similar issues.

Attention has continued to focus on the phone's lithium-ion battery.

Having failed to fix the disastrous problem, Samsung announced a permanent end to production of the troubled smartphone on Tuesday.

With many of our electronics using these lithium-ion batteries, consumers have been left wondering if they are safe. Here's what you need to know:

Batteries are containers that can convert chemical energy to electrical energy through the transfer of electrons from the negative plate -- or anode -- at one end of the battery to the cathode -- or positive plate at the other end.

But traditional batteries have a limited number of units of convertible chemical energy. The difference with the lithium-ion battery is that it is rechargeable -- a game-changer in tech innovation.

"Lithium is the lightest metal in the world which is why they use it but it is also extremely volatile, Almost every laptop on the planet, almost every smartphone is a standard formulation which is cobalt-oxide and lithium. But then there are competing formulations."

So why do some of them catch fire?

Levine says speculation among researchers suggests that the battery manufacturing process could be the source of the smartphone fires, but ultimately no one knows. And the lack of information creates consumer anxiety which could ripple out to the wider electronics industries.

"It potentially tarnishes all the manufacturers," said Levine. "How do we know that Apple or the new Google phone is not going to have the same problem?"

However, some experts say the fact the high-end phone has been discontinued points towards a design flaw.

Could manufacturing be the problem?

This is by not the first time lithium-ion batteries have hit the headlines.

Although the Samsung phone's battery is different to those in airliners, Boeing faced similar issues with lithium-ion batteries in their Dreamliner aircraft. Their entire global fleet was grounded in 2013 after multiple instances of overheating batteries in Boston and Tokyo.

At least two fatal cargo jet crashes are believed by investigating authorities to have been caused by fires on board as a result of these lithium-ion batteries. In 2010, a Boeing 747 crashed in Dubai, killing two crew members while an Asiana Airlines 747 crashed off South Korea the following year, also killing two crew members.

No, according to Levine, who says consumers are not at immediate risk from phones in their pockets blowing up.

He said: "We know right now that the problem has been confined to this one model... that it hasn't been something that has risen chronically, at least in any other Samsung device, [or] at any other manufacturer.

"So the quick answer is that [consumers] shouldn't be concerned but that doesn't mean they won't be."
Samsung recalls and suspends production of its reformulated-version of Galaxy Note 7 smartphone due to the same persistent problem with battery fires and explosions.