Samsung just hosted a press conference in Korea to share the findings of an investigation into what caused several Galaxy Note 7 smartphones to catch fire. In summary, there were two distinct battery issues, from two different manufacturers, that allowed the positive and negative electrodes to touch.
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Getting to the root cause of the issue was paramount, but what we learned from this process has ramifications, not only for Samsung but for the industry, because lithium-ion batteries aren’t going away anytime soon. The investigation process Samsung went through over these past few months would have been quite difficult for a manufacturer without Samsung’s scale, capital, RD facilities and workforce. Dedicating 700 researchers to evaluate 200,000 smartphones and 30,000 batteries in a newly built testing facility is dedication.
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Of course, a lot was on the line here for the world’s leading smartphone maker. Trust of both users and employees was at risk, and winning that trust back was paramount.
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In early October, we at Creative Strategies conducted a study to assess the U.S. smartphone market. One of the areas we wanted to evaluate was the impact, if any, that the Galaxy Note 7 incident had on the brand’s smartphone market. We were bullish then, and we are bullish now, that Samsung will recover from the Note 7 recall. Only 28 percent of U.S. Android owners said the Note 7 caused them to have a more negative opinion of the Samsung brand. Numbers were even lower among Samsung owners.
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Consumers are generally quite forgiving and have a relatively short memory. The car industry has seen several recalls over the years, yet consumers continue to buy. The mobile industry has also seen recalls, but nothing to the extent of the Note 7. Of course, what made the Note 7 such a test case is how passionate its…