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Samsung Galaxy Note 7 Explodes In New York, Burns Six-Year-Old Boy (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: A six-year-old boy from Brooklyn has reportedly become the latest victim of Samsung's disastrous exploding Galaxy Note 7 batteries. The boy had been using the device at his family home when it "suddenly burst into flames," according to the New York Post. He was rushed to hospital with burns to his body. Samsung issued a recall of 2.5 million of its latest flagship phone on September 2 -- which had only been released the previous month -- after 35 reports that lithium batteries were exploding while they were being charged. The injured boy's grandmother said that the fire caused by the phone was strong enough to "set off alarms in my house." "He is home now," Linda Lewis told press. "He doesn't want to see or go near any phones. He's been crying to his mother." Samsung issued a statement on Saturday, urging owners of the Galaxy Note 7 to "power down your device and return to using your previous phone. We will voluntarily replace your Galaxy Note 7 device with a new one, beginning on September 19th... We acknowledge the inconvenience this may cause in the market but this is to ensure that Samsung continues to deliver the highest quality products to our customers." The recall has caused Samsung's stock to plunge. On Monday, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. stock suffered from its biggest one-day price decline in its 28-year history as a public company.
Nonsense. Not everyone is so technology minded that such recalls catches there eye. We are so heavily bombarded with non-information nowadays that such messages just do not get through anymore, unless they are on the front page of newspapers, prime-time advertisements on tv and huge advertising campaigns on the internet. Just like they did to sell the product, but they did not do that, it would eat up Samsungs advertising budget for the entire year.
On the other hand, Samsung could have very easily pushed an OTA update to all Galaxy Note 7 phones to rudely and directly inform the user of the problem.
The fact they did not do that tells me they do not really care about their customers. They are doing just enough to indemnify themselves, without creating too much unwanted attention to the problem.
Maybe not brick it (because people might try to fix it).
Just put a huge warning message that the device is dead and can not be used anymore. Give the people a code that they can use to claim a refund, and tell them they don't even have to bring it to a store. They can just chuck it away and claim a refund.
That way, no parent gives it to a young kid, and they scare them enough into getting rid of it.