Samsung is Setting Up Note 7 Exchange Booths at Airports Around the World (theverge.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Samsung is setting up Galaxy Note 7 exchange booths in airports around the world, hoping to stop customers taking the dangerous device onto flights at the last minute. The first of these new "customer service points" appear to have been introduced in South Korean airports, but Samsung has confirmed the booths are opening in airports across Australia, with reports of the desks appearing in the US as well. The booths are located in "high-traffic terminals" before security screening, says Samsung, and allow Note 7 owners to swap their phone for an unspecified exchange device. According to a report from ABC7News in San Francisco -- where a Samsung exchange desk has appeared at the city's international airport -- employees for the tech company are on hand to help customers transfer their data onto a new phone.

Comments

Not a bad idea

[TwentyCharsIsNotEnou]

This way a lot of people will just accept the ease of quickly getting a Samsung replacement, and not wander off and buy another brand.

A quote comes to mind

[ausekilis]

An old boss of mine said "If you had time to do it a second time, you had enough time to do it right the first time".

While not a direct statement to what Samsung is going through, I do hope that the costs of:

• Lost sales/refunds for the original device
• Lost sales/refunds for the replacement device
• R&D for the creation of both devices
• Loss of reputation and related lost sales
• Sunk cost in replacement devices (be they samsung or other)
• Cost of setting up replacement booths and paying technician salaries (and rental space in an airport)

is enough to make them look closer at what design stupidity they tried to get away with and stop with their nonsense. The consensus on Slashdot and other tech sites I visit seems to be "Give me a phone that I'm not afraid is going to break and goes longer than 8 hours between charges", neither of which are easily done with this race to paper-thin.

Samsung, take note. People like replaceable batteries. They like slightly thicker, stronger phones that don't feel like they are going to snap in half when you take them out of your pocket. People like being able to take their phone through an entire day of whatever, without worrying about recharging in the middle. You guys have the 10nm fab going, start getting better batteries and working on energy efficient phones. I don't care if a web site takes 0.05 seconds longer to load, I'd probably blame my cell providers network anyway.

Re:Time to stop super thin phones and fixed batter

[Aaden42]

When you can create a design with a user-replaceable battery that is equal or better than a fixed battery phone for all of the following:

1. Weight
2. Thickness
3. Battery life
4. Waterproofness
5. Cover never falls off
6. Battery itself is sufficiently armored so as to be safe in an average hand bag or pocket

then patent the design & retire comfortably.

Until then, it’s hard. Stop playing armchair phone designer & materials scientist.