Even further damage to the Samsung Brand/Name?

[jsgiv]

It looks like it's starting to happen... Samsung's name/brand is now broadly being questioned (or at least attached directly to extremely negative news...)..

I woke up to watch this story this morning:

https://gma.yahoo.com/video/airlines-add-tool-fight-overheating-093513493.html

When you have a news expose this morning starting out with the words:

"From those Samsung phones catching fire on planes..." - it's not good.

As many other news articles have pointed out recently in the past - there's a huge impact now to Samsung's name long term here.. Thoughts?

 

[akin_t]

No doubt, there is media bias against Samsung.

I guess America really doesn't want foreign manufacturers to succeed here.

Let's hope Samsung's PR employees are more competent than their engineers.

 

[GrooveRite]

Psst...have you guys been watching the tonight show on nbc?? Its been on Jimmy Fallons monologue for the whole week! This whole fiasco has gotten way too much exposure which might possibly taint Samsung's brand. Time will tell if it'll be a short or long road for them.

 

[Almeuit]

I guess America really doesn't want foreign manufacturers to succeed here.

If that were the case why not bash them long ago? They have been around a while.. They made a mistake and are paying for it. Simple as that.

 

[doohsun]

When Samsung comes out with S8 and S8 edge all will be forgotten providing that these offers a great deal in hardware specs and software. They need to ensure that product safety is priority cause if the S8 fails Samsung will fall really really fast and hard so the balls in their court. People who complain about what happen and threaten to move to another company will always go back to Samsung. Samsung like it or not always provide better hardware then other competitors such as camera, and design I don't see any other brand other than Apple that would be comparable personally.

 

[akin_t]

If that were the case why not bash them long ago? They have been around a while.. They made a mistake and are paying for it. Simple as that.

I was somewhat joking. Mostly I think Samsung simply fell victim to the 24 hour news cycle.

Yes they made a mistake, but that left them open to a barrage of repeated and banal criticism that fueled this hysteria and ultimately led to the brand damage.

We're talking about a failure rate that, while not meeting six sigma, is still incredibly low. Yet it was reported as if every Note 7 was an 'explosive'.

With that being said, Samsung does have some incompetent engineers. The mere fact that they put out new devices without verifying 100% that the issue was fixed is troubling.

 

[JohnT3]

I was going through the recent political cartoons or whatever on MSN yesterday and all the recent ones were either the election or the Note 7. I still don't see it as being a serious enough problem that people will stop buying them. I think they were lucky it didn't happen to the standard s7 or s7 edge. That would have been a totally different story I think.

 

[Almeuit]

I was somewhat joking. Mostly I think Samsung simply fell victim to the 24 hour news cycle.

Yes they made a mistake, but that left them open to a barrage of repeated and banal criticism that fueled this hysteria and ultimately led to the brand damage.

We're talking about a failure rate that, while not meeting six sigma, is still incredibly low. Yet it was reported as if every Note 7 was an 'explosive'.

With that being said, Samsung does have some incompetent engineers. The mere fact that they put out new devices without verifying 100% that the issue was fixed is troubling.

First -- what other company could make a huge mistake and not be talked bad about in the news? This isn't just Samsung .. Any company would get this.

Second -- Even if it is low how does that matter? It was enough concern for Samsung to cancel an entire phone when it just launched 2 months ago. I would say the low failure rate was an issue if they thought it was bad enough (or the rate could go up if left out there) for them to cancel an entire phone. That isn't a light decision they just toss around.

 

[weave majjik]

No doubt, there is media bias against Samsung.

I guess America really doesn't want foreign manufacturers to succeed here.

Let's hope Samsung's PR employees are more competent than their engineers.

You do realize no phones are manufactured here, right?

 

[ThrottleJohnny]

This is something the company will just have to deal with the next few years, and fight their way back from.

I don't feel sorry for them, nor do I care if people make fun of the fact that I own a Samsung device.

I kind of like sitting back and watching where they go from here. But I don't let the media dictate my feelings on anything. Certainly not this.

 

[akin_t]

First -- what other company could make a huge mistake and not be talked bad about in the news? This isn't just Samsung .. Any company would get this.

Second -- Even if it is low how does that matter? It was enough concern for Samsung to cancel an entire phone when it just launched 2 months ago. I would say the low failure rate wasn't an issue if they thought it was bad enough (or the rate could go up if left out there) for them to cancel an entire phone. That isn't a light decision they just toss around.

Uh, Apple? Tesla? Sure we're talking about phones now, but don't presume to be naive and ignore the simple fact that some corporations are media darlings and some are not.

If Tesla's autopilot accident happened to GM for instance, the incident would have remained in the news for twice as long.

I suppose we will never find out but, my guess is if this happened to Apple, the tech blogs would be writing articles on "How to charge your iPhone the right way", or "Recommended chargers for your new iPhone!". Simply put, allusions that user error could be a reason for the thermal runaway.

Of course it matters if a failure rate is low; it gives one an idea of the potential mechanism of failure (FMEA 101), and consequently the projected MTBF. I don't know how many were sold and how many were affected prior to the first recall, but these statements hold true anywhere.

Unless they absolutely suspected something was amiss with their design (that incompetence I'm talking about), Samsung recalled the phones for PR reasons more so than anything.

Where they absolutely messed up was not finding the root cause of the issue prior to re-releasing allegedly "safe" Notes.

 

[akin_t]

You do realize no phones are manufactured here, right?

Replace manufactured with designed if it helps you sleep at night.

Also, it was a joke.

 

[xsikal]

Uh, Apple? Tesla? Sure we're talking about phones now, but don't presume to be naive and ignore the simple fact that some corporations are media darlings and some are not.

If Tesla's autopilot accident happened to GM for instance, the incident would have remained in the news for twice as long.

I don't agree with that at all. Tesla gets tons of press over every single thing that happens to them, positive or negative, because media sites know it will bring in clicks. A single GM car having an accident (even if they were using some sort of assisted driving) would never generate as much press as when it happens to Tesla.

 

[Almeuit]

Uh, Apple? Tesla? Sure we're talking about phones now, but don't presume to be naive and ignore the simple fact that some corporations are media darlings and some are not.

Did I say I was naive? Sounds like you assumed. I am simply asking you why you thought they were being "picked on" in the news when it is a known issue and Samsung has even owned the issue. There are no conspiracies or cover ups. Samsung messed up bad and is going to pay the price of being trashed for a little bit. Especially since the CPSC just issued a full recall on Oct. 13th. In time it will calm down and Samsung can continue on with their next phone but when you cancel an entire product line .. It is going to catch some news.

 

[akin_t]

I don't agree with that at all. Tesla gets tons of press over every single thing that happens to them, positive or negative, because media sites know it will bring in clicks. A single GM car having an accident (even if they were using some sort of assisted driving) would never generate as much press as when it happens to Tesla.

Sure Tesla gets clicks because they're shaking up the industry. However, it's mostly good press, the bad press they get is mostly just skepticism on if they can deliver on their promises.

People are fascinated by Musk, and they want Tesla to succeed. Reminds me of the media's fascination with Jobs in a way.

If it was GM that had an autonomous accident, people would want to see heads roll.

 

[ajb1965]

Just funny how an I7+ exploded in a man's face with pictures and about 5 other cases in a month but no news on that. (In the US) . When the issue should be about batteries. All brands are capable of catching fire. If the N7 wasn't an iPhone killer or a threat to iPhone sales it wouldn't be an issue.

If Apple had over a hundred cases of battery issues, then you can bet it would be in headlines everywhere. It's the nature of the media these days. Phones have caught fire, smoked, etc from just about every manufacturer. The 'media darlings' are only 'darlings' to the sites biased towards them (BGR, Verge, etc). The objective (or as objective as media can be these days) news outlets only report what's big. 100+ cases pre-recall, then more after deemed 'safe' is big tech news. If the Samsung issue hadn't occurred, then the iPhone issues may have had more exposure.

 

[Katrina White1]

Just funny how an I7+ exploded in a man's face with pictures and about 5 other cases in a month but no news on that. (In the US) . When the issue should be about batteries. All brands are capable of catching fire. If the N7 wasn't an iPhone killer or a threat to iPhone sales it wouldn't be an issue.

My sentiments exactly. I understand this happened more on Samsung's product so they're getting reamed. However, if this has happened to EVERY phone manufacturer, then the batteries need to be examined. Why is it happening? Maybe if the other manufacturers looked into it as well, they could come together and hopefully figure out why. Assuming they don't all use the same battery (maker) of course.

 

[jgraves1107]

Anyone notice the teardown video? The back of the battery is like flimsy where it is stuck inside.

 

[dsignori]

Meh. It's the worst part of the storm now. I think a lof of folks forget just how short people's attention spans are nowadays in our world.

It seems bad now if you're a Samsung fan, but sooner rather than later, it will be forgotten by the general public (though not in forums like these). It won't won't be on the news forever (or probably at all a month from now), but it is a hot topic now for sure, and I don't understand why anyone would expect it not to be in the news. It's a big deal (NOW anyway).

 

[keepnitreel]

It won't be on the news forever but it will be back in the news when the S8 is launched..... You can bet on that