Much water has flown under the bridge and the fiasco surrounding the Galaxy Note 7's exploding batteries is finally set to get some respite as Samsung resumes selling the phablet in South Korea in a couple of days.
Come Oct. 1, Samsung will recommence selling the Galaxy Note 7 — its latest flagship, which comes equipped with an Iris scanner — on its home turf. The news has been confirmed by Samsung and will be welcomed by fans who were eagerly waiting to get their hands on the Galaxy Note 7.
The company currently has an exchange program in place in South Korea, in which those who purchased a faulty Galaxy Note 7 can get it replaced. Samsung is optimistic that by the start of October, it would have successfully replaced nearly 80 percent of the defective Galaxy Note 7 units.
For the uninitiated, on Sept. 2, Samsung announced a worldwide recall of nearly 2.5 million units of its defective Galaxy Note 7 in 10 markets, because the batteries of the handsets were causing the device to catch fire. This was due to a manufacturing defect.
The hazardous nature of the Galaxy Note 7 even led to several airlines around the globe banning the use of the Samsung smartphone on flights.
The replacement units of the Galaxy Note 7 have a green battery indicator instead of white. Nearly a million Galaxy Note 7s have been recalled in the U.S., with 60 percent consumers already exchanging their units after the arrival of the replacements.
Thus far, Samsung not only held back the sales of the Galaxy Note 7 units, but also dropped its marketing campaign. Samsung has desisted from airing any TV adverts for the Galaxy Note 7 till the completion of its exchange program. However, the company has now revealed that it will resume TV adverts in its home country from Sept. 28 in the run-up to the new sales date.
What's more, in a bid to lure buyers in, Samsung is offering consumers who purchased the handset in October, a 50 percent off on any repair work for the Galaxy Note 7, this includes replacing the screen.
While sales of the Galaxy Note 7 bettered that of predecessor Galaxy Note 5 prior to the unfortunate recall, it will be interesting to see if consumers remain loyal to the brand despite the damage the battery exploding issue has caused.
Will Samsung be able to restore faith in consumers? Will the Galaxy Note 7 sales plummet or see a spike after sales resume? We can only wait and watch.
