It was a brutal past week for Samsung and the Galaxy Note 7, filled with exploding phones, recalls and unique government statements, but now, the Korean technology firm believes it knows what's behind the mess: a minor manufacturing flaw.
Samsung outlined the preliminary findings in a report to the Korean Agency for Technology and Standards, saying that a production error caused negative and positive poles within battery cells to push together, resulting in these heating up and ultimately exploding.
This, however, is just the beginning, as Samsung noted it is going all-out to definitively determine what has gone wrong with its flagship phone.
"Even before we have the final result of the investigation, we plan to establish and carry out the best ways to take care of our customers," the company said in its Sept. 2 report. "We are currently investigating the battery issue in cooperation with battery manufacturers."
Of course, Samsung wouldn't be wrong in doing so, as this series of events has become a headache for pretty much everyone involved with the Note 7, as well as a memorable spectacle for just about everyone else.
As one might recall, the Note 7 was hailed as a success early on, and was poised to go head-to-head with Apple's iPhone 7 when it launches later this month. However, reports of explosions — 35 in total, such as one that burned a 6-year-old's hands in New York and another that caused $1,400 in damages to an Australian hotel room, have set Samsung back quite a bit.
Since then, Samsung has suffered blow after blow: it has been forced to recall more than 2.5 million units from around the world, the U.S. government has formally urged owners to shut down the devices and stop charging them and the Federal Aviation Administration has warned owners against using the smartphones on planes.
All of this has resulted in a loss in market value as investors started to distance themselves from Samsung, with the company's shares being 10 percent lower than when this whole debacle began.
In the meantime, Samsung has offered to replace every Note 7 for free, and there are a few ways consumers can tell if the new phones have exploding batteries within them.
As for the next batch of Note 7s, the company is planning to switch from its primary supplier of batteries, sister company Samsung SDI, to China's ATL — Apple's main supplier for iPhone batteries.
