Samsung Says Over 96% of Galaxy Note7 Phones Returned To Date (venturebeat.com)

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Samsung Says Over 96% of Galaxy Note7 Phones Returned To Date (venturebeat.com)

Posted by msmash on Wednesday January 11, 2017 @07:22AM from the hmm dept.

Samsung said today that over 96 percent of all Galaxy Note7 phones have been returned following a recall that started in September. From a report: First introduced in August, the latest Note7 smartphone received positive reviews until reports surfaced that some devices caught fire after their batteries exploded. After a "thorough inspection" of its phones, Samsung opted to issue a mandatory recall, but only after the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) issued its own recall notice. Achieving a 96 percent return rate took about four months, but it wasn't all done organically, as Samsung revealed in December that it would issue a software update to permanently disable charging on the outstanding Note7s. Until that point, the company had received 85 percent of affected devices. The FAA said today that DoT has informed airlines that they can stop pre-flight warnings about Galaxy Note7 smartphones.

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Note 7 by Anonymous Coward · 2017-01-11 07:25 · Score: 5, Funny

You'll have to pry my Note 7 from my cold dead h
1. Re:Note 7 by Aaden42 · 2017-01-11 07:31 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Your hands won't be cold.
2. Re:Note 7 by Anonymous Coward · 2017-01-11 07:42 · Score: 0, Insightful
  
  But apparently you'll freely give us the same retarded, over-used joke every goddamn time Samsung is mentioned.
3. Re:Note 7 by Anonymous Coward · 2017-01-11 07:49 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  Your hands won't be
  
  FTFY
4. Re:Note 7 by Anonymous Coward · 2017-01-11 07:55 · Score: 0
  
  I'm sorry. I didn't mean to fan any flames.
5. Re:Note 7 by Anonymous Coward · 2017-01-11 08:13 · Score: 0
  
  You'll have to pry my Note 7 from my cold dead h
  There is a special place in H3LL for people like you.
  You will be forced to endlessly watch the commercial of Steve Jobs introducing the Mac to the world to the theme & backdrop of 1984.
6. Re:Note 7 by Anonymous Coward · 2017-01-11 08:13 · Score: 0
  
  Awww, butthurt Samsung employee spotted.
7. Re:Note 7 by Anonymous Coward · 2017-01-11 08:27 · Score: 1
  
  wow - same non funny "joke" that the basement dwellers on here find funny
8. Re:Note 7 by Anonymous Coward · 2017-01-11 08:33 · Score: 0
  
  Hi Samsung employee.
9. Re:Note 7 by Anonymous Coward · 2017-01-11 08:36 · Score: 0
  
  Some of us have no windows or sunlight... merely the cold glow of our screens.
  We're allowed to make corny jokes here. It's what keeps us going. Now put on some sunscreen & close those curtains... your real-world existence has us mocking you now!
10. Re:Note 7 by Anonymous Coward · 2017-01-11 12:33 · Score: 0
  
  but jokes are supposed to be funny, it's kind of their defining point
11. Re:Note 7 by Anonymous Coward · 2017-01-12 00:19 · Score: 0
  
  To be fair it's less of a joke and more of a meme.
  What bothers me is that Slashdot used to have it's own unique ecosystem of memes. Somehow Reddit memes were introduced and became an invasive species, all but wiping out the native memes and the culture that generated them.
12. Re: Note 7 by Anonymous Coward · 2017-01-12 00:30 · Score: 0
  
  Samsung's phone division can burn in hell along with their shitty bloated phones.
Tallies! Remaining 4 percent by Anonymous Coward · 2017-01-11 07:26 · Score: 0

is being used by ISIS as pipe bombs.
The other 4% is on fire by elrous0 · 2017-01-11 07:33 · Score: 2

Waiting to be shipped back once the cool down.

--
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Are the rest collectors? by omnichad · 2017-01-11 07:39 · Score: 1

I bet an intact Note 7 will be worth some money to collectors in a few dozen years. Problem is keeping it working and not exploded until then.
1. Re:Are the rest collectors? by Anonymous Coward · 2017-01-11 07:50 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  How could antiquated malfunctioning electronics do anything BUT appreciate in value?
2. Re:Are the rest collectors? by thegarbz · 2017-01-11 07:57 · Score: 1
  
  I bet you're wrong.
  There's nothing worthy of declaring a run of the mill product with a very standard design flaw a "collectors item".
3. Re:Are the rest collectors? by ausekilis · 2017-01-11 08:29 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  Seems you don't have a collector's mindset.
  
  Two easy counter-examples, Cheetahmen II and Action 52 for the NES. The cartridges were both unlicensed and "run-of-the-mill" products in that they were among the crappy NES titles of the time. Action-52 contains lots of crappy games that certainly wouldn't be worth the initial asking price for the cartridge. Today you can have one for ~$240, making it the 25th most expensive NES item. Cheetahmen II wasn't mass produced and only 1500 copies exist, but that can go for $1000.
  
  Still not enough? Here's another list of random crap that's worth a lot today. The Super Soaker Monster XL sold for $500.
  
  I couldn't find a list of things that have been recalled that are now collectible, but I seem to remember a baseball card with a profanity hidden on it being recalled/reprinted and the original is worth a hell of a lot more.
4. Re:Are the rest collectors? by MiniMike · 2017-01-11 08:47 · Score: 1
  
  I bet an intact Note 7 will be worth some money to collectors in a few dozen years.
  Is the next ice age expected so soon?
5. Re:Are the rest collectors? by thegarbz · 2017-01-11 08:56 · Score: 1
  
  Oh I do have a collector's mindset. The problem is that the Note 7 is nothing like what you linked to.
  Old games, especially rare games are collectors items in the grand scheme of collecting such items. The ones you cited are especially more so given that they have actual history in their creation stemming from illegal unlicensed content at the time, plagiarism and other shady crap that went into them. There was a limited run and now they are incredibly rare.
  The Note 7 on the other hand is an incredibly generic device, one with a design flaw that makes it unstable. From the outside it looks just like any other smartphone, but on the inside it's something that will either catch fire or not work at all after a few years. It is what makes it in general, generic looking crap with nothing of interest.
  Your baseball card also has a story behind it, and one beyond "someone screwed up the design and it had to be recalled". Now if a Note 7 took down Airforce One, or even actually caused a disaster huge for anyone other than the company's image + a few planes that turned around due to panic reaction you may have something. But a fault and a recall do not make something collectors worthy.
6. Re:Are the rest collectors? by sexconker · 2017-01-11 09:28 · Score: 1
  
  The Note 7 on the other hand is an incredibly generic device, one with a design flaw that makes it unstable. From the outside it looks just like any other smartphone, but on the inside it's something that will either catch fire or not work at all after a few years. It is what makes it in general, generic looking crap with nothing of interest.
  The 1955 double die cent on the other hand is an incredibly generic coin, one with a design flaw that makes it illegible. From a glance it looks just like any other Lincoln penny, but on the head is something that will either annoy you or go unnoticed for years. It is what makes it, in general, generic-looking crap with nothing of interest.
  
  Oh I do have a collector's mindset.
  No, you don't. Anything rare, unique, or that is itself physical proof of an error committed by a powerful entity (governments, corporations, militaries, etc.) is a prime target for being a collectible.
7. Re:Are the rest collectors? by omnichad · 2017-01-11 10:42 · Score: 1
  
  Would have been if not for climate change.
8. Re:Are the rest collectors? by GuB-42 · 2017-01-11 13:04 · Score: 1
  
  Several problems :
  - The Note7 was $850, quite expensive. It means that has to really be exceptional for its collector value to exceed its functional value.
  - 2.5 million of Note7 were sold, with a 96% return rate, it means that 100000 phones are remaining, these are not one-of-a-kind items by a long shot.
  - I doesn't seem to be a turning point in anything, it didn't cause anything major besides a costly recall, which Samsung handled quite well financially. It is just a defective phone with no distinguishing features besides a dangerous battery. And dangerous li-ion battery are hardly unheard of.
  Keeping a Note7 for its collector's value is like keeping a diesel VW car as a memory of the emission cheating scandal.
9. Re:Are the rest collectors? by Anonymous Coward · 2017-01-12 00:33 · Score: 0
  
  People collect coins, people collect vintage games, and people collect collectors cards. Nobody really collects mistakes simply because they are mistakes. A dead phone is just electronic waste.
Another decade of airport announcements by sinij · 2017-01-11 07:50 · Score: 1

However, we can still look forward to another decade of airport announcements regarding Note7.
1. Re:Another decade of airport announcements by Anonymous Coward · 2017-01-11 08:06 · Score: 0
  
  Well, there's a clue in the summary above:
  "The FAA said today that DoT has informed airlines that they can stop pre-flight warnings about Galaxy Note7 smartphones."
  So... probably not(e).
2. Re:Another decade of airport announcements by SeaFox · 2017-01-11 08:17 · Score: 2
  
  No, that was dropped today as the danger of Samsung Note 7s is now considered common knowledge, the FAA has decided.
3. Re:Another decade of airport announcements by sinij · 2017-01-12 02:52 · Score: 1
  
  Savage! Reading TFA is considered sacrilege on /.
Sweet! I can fly again by Anonymous Coward · 2017-01-11 07:58 · Score: 0

So not only is my Note7 becoming rare and more valuable I can take it on the plane again.
I could be sitting next to YOU on your next flight hahaha
Re:Sweet! I can fly again by Anonymous Coward · 2017-01-11 08:02 · Score: 0

rare and more valuable
It's becoming more rare. More valuable? Doubtful.
What about washing machines? by khr · 2017-01-11 08:15 · Score: 2

DoT has informed airlines that they can stop pre-flight warnings about Galaxy Note7 smartphones
But do they now have to give pre-flight warnings about not using Samsung washing machines on the plane?
1. Re:What about washing machines? by Anonymous Coward · 2017-01-11 21:50 · Score: 0
  
  that's unpossible, how they going to give the water and drains for it in the airplane?!
Re: Sad to see the Trump administration... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-01-11 08:37 · Score: 0

We know people have died from his hateful decision to disable our phones. It's jaunt amazing that the media is refusing to report on it. We need working phones. Please Samsung let me use my phone.
Re:Sweet! I can fly again by Anonymous Coward · 2017-01-11 08:42 · Score: 0

It's still illegal to take on a flight, they just won't announce it before.
A fix? by amiga3D · 2017-01-11 08:47 · Score: 1

Hard to believe there was no way to fix the phones. I read somewhere it was an issue with the battery. Surely they could have just replaced all the batteries?
1. Re:A fix? by SeaFox · 2017-01-11 08:56 · Score: 2
  
  Hard to believe there was no way to fix the phones. I read somewhere it was an issue with the battery. Surely they could have just replaced all the batteries?
  Possibly, except the batteries were likely not designed to be easily replaced to start with. They certainly weren't made to be user-replaceable. In new forced-obsolescence style, I'm sure their plan was for customers to just buy a new phone by the time the battery ran out. Replacing the batteries would mean collecting the handsets, keeping track of whose was whose, going through the labor of replacing the battery, and shipping them back to the consumer, all on Samsung's dime.
  Just collecting all the phones in a big box and disposing them was probably a more palatable solution.
2. Re:A fix? by Desler · 2017-01-11 08:59 · Score: 1
  
  They did replace the batteries with ones from a completely different company. Those were the second-wave of Note 7s that were supposedly safe until even they caught fire.
3. Re:A fix? by jellomizer · 2017-01-11 09:13 · Score: 1
  
  Replace a battery?! What did you just wake up from 2007? Replacing the battery will be like replacing the CPU, the Screen or the Memory.
  Ohh. That joke made me sad.
  
  --
  If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
4. Re:A fix? by Anonymous Coward · 2017-01-11 09:15 · Score: 0
  
  How would the battery being user-replaceable have changed anything? Samsung used completely different batteries and still had issues.
5. Re:A fix? by CaptainDork · 2017-01-11 09:51 · Score: 1
  
  Surely you could have Googled it.
  
  --
  It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
6. Re:A fix? by ItsJustAPseudonym · 2017-01-11 10:10 · Score: 1
  
  I think they found out *too late* that the problem was physical, namely battery expansion due to heating. The battery had no room to expand in the phone housing, and suffered a mechanical breakage. I think their "different batteries" suffered from the same problem.
  
  They might have been able to avoid the problem if they went to a thin-enough battery, but the battery life probably would have been reduced to a stupidly small time. In the end, they decided to cut their losses.
7. Re:A fix? by tlhIngan · 2017-01-11 10:59 · Score: 1
  
  Possibly, except the batteries were likely not designed to be easily replaced to start with. They certainly weren't made to be user-replaceable. In new forced-obsolescence style, I'm sure their plan was for customers to just buy a new phone by the time the battery ran out. Replacing the batteries would mean collecting the handsets, keeping track of whose was whose, going through the labor of replacing the battery, and shipping them back to the consumer, all on Samsung's dime.
  Just collecting all the phones in a big box and disposing them was probably a more palatable solution.
  Just because something is not "user replaceable" doesn't mean it isn't replacable. iPod batteries aren't user-replaceable. iPhone batteries aren't, either. And yet you can change them, with requisite skill. Or pay Apple $100 for a new battery and installation. (This applies to their laptops, too, which generally are fairly easy to change).
  And if it was a battery problem, it's easy to change as well. Samsung would just collect the phones, replace the batteries and send them back out. They won't worry about whose phone is whose phone - they'd just replace the battery, reflash them and send them back.
  The problem is likely far bigger than just a battery problem - it could be battery expansion causing damage to the battery, a charging circuit problem or other issue. After all, the replacement phones also failed, too.
8. Re:A fix? by ChunderDownunder · 2017-01-11 12:05 · Score: 1
  
  I just replaced the battery on a Nexus device. Even after watching multiple youtube videos and using the supplied tools from a battery 'kit' I bought on ebay, it still took me minutes of frustration to jimmy the case open.
  $10 provided me with an hour of 'fun' and will extend the life of the phone for another 18 months.
  But if the phone I had was deemed a fire hazard as a battery, there's no way I'd have been tinkering around with a Torx screwdriver to replace it.
9. Re:A fix? by amiga3D · 2017-01-11 17:42 · Score: 1
  
  I read it and it's a lot of supposition. There's no clear, definitive answer.
10. Re:A fix? by Anonymous Coward · 2017-01-12 00:44 · Score: 0
  
  Supply chains generally only work in one direction. Doing the occasional battery replacement for a fee is very different to replacing the battery in 2.5 million phones at once on your own dime. The cost of servicing them would absolutely dwarf original manufacturing costs.
11. Re:A fix? by CaptainDork · 2017-01-12 03:52 · Score: 1
  
  Yeah, go with that.
  
  --
  It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
12. Re:A fix? by amiga3D · 2017-01-12 05:04 · Score: 1
  
  It is what it is.
13. Re:A fix? by CaptainDork · 2017-01-12 05:21 · Score: 1
  
  No.
  You are what you are.
  
  --
  It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
14. Re:A fix? by amiga3D · 2017-01-12 07:44 · Score: 1
  
  I is what I is. ;)
15. Re:A fix? by CaptainDork · 2017-01-12 09:59 · Score: 1
  
  I am that I am. :)
  
  --
  It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
16. Re:A fix? by amiga3D · 2017-01-12 15:49 · Score: 1
  
  Good one!
17. Re:A fix? by SeaFox · 2017-01-13 13:08 · Score: 1
  
  Just because something is not "user replaceable" doesn't mean it isn't replacable. iPod batteries aren't user-replaceable. iPhone batteries aren't, either. And yet you can change them, with requisite skill.
  
  Batteries made to be non-user replaceable take longer to replace. Labor costs money. You have to factor that in to which recall choice they'll make.
  
  And if it was a battery problem, it's easy to change as well. Samsung would just collect the phones, replace the batteries and send them back out. They won't worry about whose phone is whose phone - they'd just replace the battery, reflash them and send them back.
  ...and deal with the inevitable complaints from some people about the phone they get back having damage/wear, while the one they took such good care of and sent in, did not? Remember, smartphones are expensive enough that many people resell them or trade them in when they get their new one. The condition the old device was in would play a role in deducing value. Too much hassle for Samsung Better to just cut everyone a check, destroy them all, and let God sort 'em out.
Re:Sad to see the Trump administration... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-01-11 08:50 · Score: 0

But no anger towards Trump for stealing the air from your spare tire?
The other 4% ... by CaptainDork · 2017-01-11 09:24 · Score: 1

... burned up in the atmosphere.

--
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
Re:Sad to see the Trump administration... by CaptainDork · 2017-01-11 09:49 · Score: 1

That, "18 degrees," was CELSIUS.
Jeeze.

--
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
Whew! by Anonymous Coward · 2017-01-11 21:24 · Score: 0

They are good to go now, the other 4% are the ones that blew up
4% of the Gerbils are missing too! by Anonymous Coward · 2017-01-11 21:48 · Score: 0

just sayin. I be a few phones are hidden in a stinky warm place.