Last night, a report claimed that Samsung was temporarily suspending production of the Galaxy Note 7 following reports that replacement models were catching fire. Now Samsung has issued an official comment on the matter, but it doesn’t quite say that it’s halting production.
Samsung says that it is “temporarily adjusting the Galaxy Note 7 production schedule in order to take further steps to ensure quality and safety matters.” The company didn’t go into further detail about what further steps it’s taking or any of the findings of its investigations into the recent reports of replacement Note 7s catching fire.
Meanwhile, Verizon has joined AT&T and T-Mobile in halting sales of the supposedly safe Note 7. Verizon is also no longer handing out replacement Note 7 units for exchanges, but it will allow any customer with a Note 7 to swap it for a different smartphone.
With five different reports of replacement Note 7s catching fire in the span of a single week, it’s good that Samsung is suspending or “adjusting” production of the device to look into the matter. At some point, though, you have to wonder if Samsung will just axe the Note 7 altogether. Many people will now associate the Note 7 name with catching fire, and you have to think that Samsung’s carrier partners are getting frustrated with the exchanges and halts on device sales.
Do you think Samsung should just drop the Note 7?