As you might have heard, Samsung is doing everything they can to get customers to return the Note 7 either for a refund or for an exchange to another Samsung handset. However there are still plenty of customers out there who for some reason are still holding onto their devices, and this number is pretty shocking.
According to research firm Apteligent (via Android Police), the number of unreturned Note 7 handsets out there in the wild are still higher than that of existing handsets in the market today, such as the LG V20, a phone from one of Samsung’s fiercer rivals. As you can see in the graph above, Note 7 market share has dipped considerably and sharply over time, but it is still high enough where it is still giving its competitors a run for their money.
However in LG’s defense and as pointed out by Android Police, the LG V20 was not sold in certain markets such as Europe, so its relatively low market share should not be an indication of its popularity, whereas the Note 7 was released pretty much globally. We also can’t speak to the accuracy of these numbers since they’re not necessarily official, so take it with a grain of salt for now.
In the meantime Samsung has announced that in the US, they will be pushing out an update that will effectively kill the phone by disabling its ability to connect to networks and also prevent it from charging, presumably in hopes that its expensive paperweight status will prompt customers to make the exchange.
Filed in . Read more about Galaxy Note 7, LG, LG V20 and Samsung.