Competition is common among companies that produce the same products. Two of the most well known competitors that are in the electronic market are Samsung and Apple. For years, they have been competing to produce the most popular technological devices. Each competing to be on top. Constantly creating individual and innovative ideas. With the need to have the best products, this field induces intense competition that commonly creates legal issues and errors.
The Galaxy Note 7 became available to the market on August 19, 2016. According to CNET magazine, the first review of the Galaxy Note 7 in August found it to be one of the best phones of the year. It has a large screen, excellent camera, useful S-Pen tools, and a big battery that lasted for hours (Dolcourt).
The Galaxy Note 7 was created to compete against Apple’s new iPhone 7. However, not long after the release many of these device’s batteries began to overheat and go on fire. The removable battery has caused the phone to go up in flames in many different cases. Samsung has received ninety-two reports of battery explosions in the United States (Samuelson).
Everyone was scared that all Samsung phones will go on fire while traveling: in private cars, in public transportation, or even in airplanes. “The world’s three largest carriers by passenger traffic, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines, say that employees will tell passengers at the gate and on board aircraft to keep the Note 7 switched off until they deplane” (Samuelson). The airlines did not want to chance with this fire-prone phone catching on fire while in the air.
Samsung canceled all of the sales on the Galaxy Note 7 in early September. The U.S. According to the Myanmar Insider, Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) cautioned users to turn off their devices and stop using them. Then, the CPSC issued a voluntary recall of devices sold before September 15 (Lynn).
Samsung recalled a total of 2.5 million devices worldwide. Thus far, Samsung has reported that eighty-five percent of all recalled Galaxy Note 7 devices in the US have already been replaced (Spence). This could be the costliest product safety failures in technology history.
Samsung is already facing its first class-action lawsuit over the Galaxy Note 7 from three different customers. A class-action lawsuit is a lawsuit in which a large number of plaintiffs bring the suit as a group (Clarkson). This would be a product liability class-action suit because of the dangerous sale of defective goods by the fault of Samsung.
According to CNBC, this suit would represent all Note 7 customers from Nevada, Pennsylvania, and California. This class-action case has been formally named ‘Waudby v. Samsung, 16-cv-07334, U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey (Newark)’. The main complaint of this class-action lawsuit was that customers had to continue to pay monthly plan and device charges after they were instructed to stop the use of their phones and to power them down (CNBC).
After this terrible defect, Samsung must rebuild trust with its consumers. Even though no other Samsung phone has had a harmful defect, many consumers are hesitant to keep putting their money into this company. Samsung smartphone holders are nervous that their phone will also go on fire or even that it will have a different imperfection.
Consumers will not purchase from Samsung again unless, they are positive something of this nature will not happen again. People now view the Samsung company as flawed or untrustworthy. This incident has directly affected the other phones in the Galaxy series. Consumers associate this horrific event with the rest of the Galaxy series; deteriorating their trust in the company.
Samsung’s mobile chief said that, “We would at any cost find the exact cause (behind the Galaxy Note 7 battery issues) to restore trust of consumers so that they can use Samsung products without any safety concerns” (Sohail). Samsung is determined to do anything and everything it takes to regain trust with its consumers.
Every field of business involves some level of competition. The electronic device section has always included highly intense competition. Apple and Samsung have been battling for years, just like the companies before them. Samsung had two major errors while trying to be number one.
A few years ago, Samsung was accused and found guilty of stealing Apple’s intellectual property and patents. More recently, Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 had a defect where the batteries would go on fire. Samsung was too focused on defeating Apple, that they make sure their products were their own and completely safe for consumers.
Every field of business involves some level of competition. The electronic device section has always included highly intense competition. Apple and Samsung have been battling for years, just like the companies before them. Samsung had two major errors while trying to be number one.
A few years ago, Samsung was accused and found guilty of stealing Apple’s intellectual property and patents. More recently, Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 had a defect where the batteries would go on fire. Samsung was too focused on defeating Apple, that they make sure their products were their own and completely safe for consumers.
