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| (By Alex Tang/China Daily) |
SEOUL, South Korea — Samsung Electronics recalled all of its Galaxy Note 7 smartphones on Friday after finding batteries of some of the flagship gadgets exploded or caught fire.
Samsung's Note 7s are being pulled from shelves in 10 countries, including South Korea and the United States, just two weeks after the product's launch. Customers who already bought Note 7s will be able to swap them for new smartphones in about two weeks, said Koh Dong-jin, president of Samsung's mobile business.
He apologized for causing inconvenience and concern to customers.
The recall, the first for the new smartphone, comes at a crucial moment in Samsung's mobile business. Apple is scheduled to announce its new iPhone next week and Samsung's mobile division was counting on momentum from the Note 7's strong reviews and higher-than-expected demand.
Samsung said it had confirmed 35 instances of Note 7s catching fire or exploding. There have been no reports of injuries related to the problem.
Koh said the company's investigation found that a battery cell made by one of its two battery suppliers caused the phone to catch fire. He refused to name the battery supplier.
"There was a tiny problem in the manufacturing process so it was very difficult to find out," Koh told reporters at a news conference.
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| In this Aug 11, 2016, file photo, models display the iris scanner features of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 smartphones during its launch event at the company's headquarter in Seoul, South Korea. (AP Photo / Ahn Young-joo n. File) |
Samsung said it has sold more than 1 million Note 7 smartphones since the product's Aug 19 launch. It has manufactured about 2.5 million Note 7 phones so far, some of them still in inventory.
"There was a tiny problem in the manufacturing process, so it was very difficult to figure out," Koh told reporters at a news conference. "It will cost us so much it makes my heart ache. Nevertheless, the reason we made this decision is because what is most important is customer safety."
China is not affected by the sales suspension. The company said it used a battery made by another supplier for the Note 7 sold in China.
South Korean high school teacher Park Soo-Jung said she had rushed to buy the new phone, pre-ordering and then activating it on Aug. 19, its official launch date.
The 34-year-old living in the port city of Busan said that she was bruised when she rushed out of bed after her phone burst into flames, filling her bedroom with smoke stinking of chemicals.
She's having second thoughts about buying another newly released device, especially after losing all her personal data stored in the destroyed Note 7, she said.
"If the exploded phone had burned near my head, I would not have been able to write this post," she said in a popular online forum Thursday, where she shared a photo of the scorched Note 7 and described dousing the flames.
