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Samsung has carried out an investigation into what caused some Galaxy Note 7s to spontaneously catch fire and, to nobody’s surprise, the firm has concluded that it was the batteries’ fault. This comes from a person familar with the matter who spoke to Reuters on Monday.
The South Korean tech giant is attempting to put behind what was a disastrous year for the company caused by the Note 7 debacle, as it prepares to launch the Galaxy S8 in the first half of the year. The investigation was called upon by investors and analysts who have demanded answers about what went wrong with the Note 7, and how the company intends on preventing similar issues going forward.
"They’ve got to make sure they come clean and they’ve got to reassure buyers as to why this won’t happen again," said Bryan Ma vice president of client devices at IDC Asia/Pacific and Worldwide.
It is expected that the investigation’s results will be announced on January 23rd by Samsung mobile business head Koh Dong-jin, a day before the company announces its fourth quarter earnings. The company will likely also announce new measures the firm is taking to prevent similar problems in any new devices going forward.
The issue of exploding phones first emerged last Summer, with Samsung announcing a recall in September. But after the problem was still there with the replacement phones the company permanently halted sales. This had a hugely negative effect on the company’s financials, seeing it lose 6.1 trillion won ($5.2 billion) over three quarters.
The company announced the probe into the phones’ safety in October, and said it would hire third-party firms to examine the phone’s hardware and software design to get to the route of the problem. Reuters’ source confirmed that Samsung was able to replicate the fires during its investigation, and that the cause of the fires was not because of hardware design or software-related matters.
Profits for the company are expected to grow as a result of rising memory chip prices and increased sales of organic light-emitting diode screens for smartphones.
