Official investigation conducted by Samsung Electronics has determined that a faulty battery was the main reason for Note 7 fires, a fiasco which led to a worldwide recall of the handset before the device was fully discontinued, Reuters reported Monday. A person familiar with the matter told the news gathering organization that Samsung should officially announce the results of the investigation next Monday, January 23, a day before the company is scheduled to reveal its fourth-quarter earnings.
An unnamed source told the publication that Samsung during the investigation successfully isolated and replicated the problem, saying the cause for the fires could not be explained by hardware or software design.
As part of the announcement, Samsung is also expected to share measures it is taking to prevent similar problems in future devices. Some analysts are not convinced that faulty batteries were causing Note 7 fires because the problem persisted on replacement devices that used batteries from a different supplier.
“To me it’d be surprising if they said it was a supplier issue,” said Bryan Ma, Singapore-based analyst for research firm IDC. Many people suspect Samsung may not have given enough room for the battery inside the phone, causing it to catch fire.
As part of its probe, Samsung hired third-party firms to examine the device. The whole fiasco has dealt a 6.1 trillion won ($5.2 billion) blow to Samsung’s operating profit over three quarters. Now the firm is pressured to provide a convincing explanation about what went wrong with the Note 7 as it gears up to launch Galaxy S8 later this year.
Source: Reuters