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note fire

Update: 9/10/2016: Samsung has formally recommended that all consumers stop using the Galaxy Note 7. "Samsung continues to ensure that consumer safety remains our tiptop priority. Nosotros are request users to power downwardly their Galaxy Note7s and exchange them now." says Tim Baxter, president of Samsung Electronics America. "New Note7 replacement devices will be issued to exchange program participants upon completion of the CPSC procedure. In the interim, consumers can render their Note7 for another device."

There's still no discussion on a replacement timeline, merely consumers should finish using Note seven'south if at all possible.

For the by few weeks, evidence has been mounting that all is non well with Samsung's Galaxy Note 7. Multiple mobile carriers accept already announced exchange or refund programs and the new phablet has been linked to both a vehicle and a house fire. Now, the US Consumer Product Prophylactic Commission has issued a formal statement recommending that owners immediately cease charging their devices and keep them powered off.

The statement notes:

CPSC and Samsung are working cooperatively to formally announce an official call up of the devices, as shortly as possible. CPSC is working quickly to determine whether a replacement Galaxy Note7 is an acceptable remedy for Samsung or their phone carriers to provide to consumers.

So far, Samsung has appear an exchange program, but not a formal device recall. The fact that no recall has been initiated limits what the government can do — the FAA has issued guidelines that Galaxy Note 7s shouldn't be stowed in luggage or charged on shipping, for example, merely it tin't formally ban the device. Similarly, it remains legal to sell or purchase a Note 7 — though given the doubtfulness surrounding the product it'south not a particularly proficient idea. Singapore Airlines has banned the Note 7, while Quantas is requesting people not use them.

Galaxy Note7 Samsung

Samsung has been dragging its anxiety on this upshot from the start. Final week the company appear it had stopped shipments of the Note 7 and would work with mobile carriers to arrange replacements or refunds for anyone that wanted one. Contrary to what we thought at the time, information technology didn't actually announce a formal recall, and only said that such a move was coming in the non-to-distant-futurity. Today's announcement by the CPSC is probably meant to underscore the demand for immediate action. Samsung has stated that it believes the problem is minuscule, affecting only 24 phones out of every 1000000 — but that'south non comforting when thermal delinquent in a mobile device tin cause 3rd-degree burns or substantial destruction of property.

This is an event Samsung needs to get in front of, and it needs to get in front of it yesterday. The run a risk of fire may be small in absolute terms, but high-profile conflagrations tend to play poorly and they certainly don't practice anything to improve sales. If Samsung doesn't react soon, it could discover itself facing lawsuits from consumers who were injured (physically or otherwise) from its applied science mistakes. Left to fester, such wounds can destroy a company'southward reputation in a short corporeality of time.