14 DAY TRIAL // Samsung has recently announced the cause of the Galaxy Note 7 explosions and confirmed 96% of the faulty units were returned in the United States. If we look at the numbers, those 4% of people still hanging on to their Galaxy Note 7 phones translate in about 76,000 people, since Samsung said it sold around 1.9 million units in the U.S.
Even if the figure is not accurate, the number of people still using the Note 7 in the U.S. is probably higher than 50,000. While Samsung and U.S. carriers selling the phablet made numerous pleas to Note 7 owners to come and return their phones, there are certain types of customers who won't do that unless certain requirements are met.
According to CNBC, these “adventurers” are now grouped in communities on Facebook, Reddit and other social networks, where they give each other advise about how to avoid Samsung's software updates that prevent the Note 7's battery from charging.
Some of them are not even afraid to use their real names. For example, Jack Estes is a Galaxy Note 7 owner and IT consultant in Indianapolis. His friends know him “as a little bit of a maverick,” so they're not surprised he didn't return his Galaxy Note 7 smartphone.
Mr. Estes purchased all Galaxy Notes launched by Samsung in the United States, starting with the Note 2. Each of these devices has helped him greatly in running his business due to their large screen, powerful CPU, and useful stylus.
He doesn't want to downgrade to the Galaxy S7 edge that Samsung promised to give him in return, so he's waiting for Samsung to release the Galaxy Note 8. While he will probably never return the Galaxy Note 7, at least he will stop using it when the new Note 8 comes out.
Shandra Edstom is a payroll administrator in Portland, Oregon, and she did return her Galaxy Note 7 when Samsung announced the first global recall.
She had to wait many hours with rude staff the first time she returned her phone and she didn't want to go through the same thing again when the second Note 7 global recall was announced.
The feature she treasures most is the ability to annotate screenshots on the Galaxy Note 7. She says she “almost had a heart attack” when her data ran out once, thinking that Samsung has finally found a way to get around the software that prevents the company from pushing updates to her Galaxy Note 7.
There are many other Galaxy Note 7 owners who, for various reasons, will never return their phablets, but they seem to have one thing in common: they're all waiting for Samsung to launch the Galaxy Note 8. That's probably the only reason they will stop using their “dangerous” Note 7 units and switch to another, safe model.