14 DAY TRIAL // Samsung is very close to announcing a second recall of the Galaxy Note 7, but the company is still awaiting for the CPSC to lay out the conclusions of its investigation. Until then, consumers are advised to power down their devices and request a refund or another phone from the Galaxy S7 series.
All sales and exchanges of the Galaxy Note 7 have been halted all around the world, and even Oculus has remotely disabled support for the Note 7 paired with the Gear VR. As consumers are growing more and more concerned with their Note 7 smartphones, Samsung may be facing big financial loss.
An analyst told Reuters that the South Korean company is looking at a $17 billion financial loss caused by the Galaxy Note 7. Indeed, the company pledged to exchange about 2.5 million Note 7 units during the first recall and sales have resumed in multiple countries several weeks ago.
This means that Samsung would need to replace even more devices during a second recall. It remains to be seen if Samsung decides to re-relaunch the Note 7 or scrap the phone altogether and focus on a successor.
Samsung could lose up to 85% in profit estimates in Q4
Unnamed sources have stated for Reuters that the company is undecided at this point. The first recall caused an estimated $5 billion loss in missed sales and recall costs, and Samsung was expected to resume sales globally in the last quarter of this year.
Stephen Robb, a partner at UK law firm Weightmans, told Reuters that Samsung would need "to be writing to every customer with an apology and some form of 'compensation'... It will clearly be costly for the company but the alternative is to end up going the way of Nokia and Blackberry."
One analyst said that Samsung’s mobile division might lose as much as 85% in profit estimates for the last quarter. The Note 7 brand name is dead, some experts say. Competing smartphone manufacturers have launched powerful devices in the same price range as the Galaxy Note 7 and they’ll surely take over some of Samsung’s market share. Google released the Pixel smartphones and Apple the latest iPhones, which means that there are plenty of alternatives available.