By Hind Aljuaid What would you do if your smartphone caught fire when you were 20,000 feet in the air? Or it blew up while you were holding it? Sounds alarming, doesn’t it? Well, the prospect of even imagining such a thing is horrible and terrifying. This disaster happened worldwide in September 2016. It was one of the biggest technological failures with one of technology’s smartphone giants, Samsung.
Samsung finally revealed the problems that had caused the phone to blow up. The company gave a report that said two major battery-manufacturing defects caused some phones to overheat and catch fire. The first issue was related to battery size. These were batteries made by Samsung but the batteries were too small causing the negative electrode part of the battery to bend and touch the positive electrode, increasing the likelihood of short-circuiting, especially while the phone was charging. Samsung recalled this initial batch of Note 7 and the company re-manufactured the phones with the battery by a different supplier, namely Amperex Technology Limited. Samsung was in a hurry to release the new batch (so that they could get back their audience as quickly as possible) but the new battery also had problems. These new batteries suffered from poor insulation as points left on the batteries were able to penetrate the protective insulating. Finally, Samsung had to recall at least 2.5 million phones (they should have tested at least a dozen before dispatching), but the replacements also started to smoke, forcing Samsung to cancel the product altogether. There was a total $5.4 billion loss to the company due to the Note 7 battery issues. Therefore, Samsung faced huge losses as the batteries posed a serious risk to people’s health and safety. Samsung’s credibility was adversely challenged. However, in the future Samsung can create a thorough procedure to test batteries and other mobile parts and employ it to all of their devices. Although new and upgraded smartphones sell based on some extraordinary feature added or a slim but powerful body, the company needs to keep public health and safety the number one priority. They should provide full compensation to the victims. The company should develop rigorous tests to check mobile parts and test more than a dozen phones from each batch to ensure safety. They can also lower the price of the next upgraded model for the customers or provide the new Samsung phone free of cost (well that’s something!). Sources: H. Amelia. January 24, 2017. https://www.wired.co.uk/article/galaxy-note-7-issues-what-happened. S. Matt. October 14, 2016. https://www.techradar.com/news/this-is-how-much-samsung-says-itll-lose-on-the-galaxy-note-7-recall
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AuthorBowie State University SPR Group Student Blog Archives
May 2022
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