The report claims that Samsung still does not have a conclusive answer as to what is causing some Note 7 handsets to catch on fire and explode. There have been many speculated reasons as to why, with some reports initially citing Samsung SDI-made batteries as the problem, while others claim it could be the symmetrical design of the phone. Others claimed that the Note 7 was a rush job to beat the iPhone 7 to the market.
Some are also blaming the way Samsung handled the situation. Granted the company did not take long to issue a recall, but they did so by doing it on their own as opposed to working with government agencies like the CPSC (which they eventually did). According to Stuart Statler, a former CPSC commissioner and independent product safety consultant, “What Samsung should have done, very early on, was to share even its preliminary findings or thoughts.”
However the report from The Wall Street Journal claims that Samsung thought that the “right thing” to do was to quickly take corrective action based on the initial evidence as opposed to waiting for more information, which some execs believe would leave customers in the dark for too long and allow the situation to get worse.
Safe to say that things have not worked out the way the company had imagined as soon they had issued a second recall, ultimately leading to the phone being discontinued. Will we ever get our answer? It’s possible that we will, although we don’t know when we will get it.