The fallout over the potential for Samsung Galaxy Note 7 smartphones to catch fire is intensifying. On Friday, the United States
Consumer Product Safety Commission urged owners of the smartphone to power down their Galaxy Note 7
devices and stop using them altogether. “C.P.S.C. and Samsung are working cooperatively
to formally announce an official recall of the
devices as soon as possible,” the agency said in a statement. “C.P.S.C. is working quickly to
determine whether a replacement Galaxy Note 7 is an acceptable remedy for Samsung or their phone carriers to provide to consumers.” The C.P.S.C. is the main consumer product safety agency in the United States, with broad oversight over toys, tractors, appliances and electronics.
This year, the C.P.S.C. recalled hoverboards that contained lithium-ion batteries; those batteries exploded or caught fire in dozens of cases. The commission’s statement is the latest blow to Samsung and the Galaxy Note 7, which became available only two weeks ago. This month, Samsung said it would recall 2.5 million of the devices because of an issue with the lithium-ion batteries in the phones, which can catch fire and explode. The problem had affected 35 devices globally as of last week. Samsung said it was voluntarily recalling the phones and “conducting a
thorough inspection with our suppliers to identify possible affected batteries in the market.” Air safety regulators worldwide have since advised passengers not to charge or turn on the smartphones inside an aircraft. Three Australian
airlines have banned them. On Thursday, the
Federal Aviation Administration also said it
“strongly” advised passengers onboard planes not
to use the Galaxy Note 7. In a statement on Friday,
Tim Baxter, president of Samsung Electronics America said, “We are
asking users to power down their Galaxy Note
7s and exchange them now.” The recall comes at a
tricky time for Samsung.
The Galaxy is one of the South Korean
company’s most visible consumer product lines, and its smartphones compete with the Apple
iPhone for pre-eminence with consumers. This
week, Apple unveiled its newest smartphones, the
iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, which will ship later this
month. It was unclear if Samsung would provide
refunds for Galaxy Note 7 customers who did not want a replacement provided by the
company. All four major wireless carriers in the
United States — Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and
Sprint — have halted sales of the Galaxy Note 7 and
have been given instructions to help owners
make an exchange, Samsung said. While the recall of the Galaxy Note 7 is
Samsung’s largest voluntary recall, it is not the
biggest on record. In 2007, Nokia announced a
recall of 46 million cellphone batteries. In 2006,
Dell recalled 4.1 million lithium-ion batteries for
notebook computers.

Hmmmm. How authentic is this?