Today marks the end of the road for the Samsung Galaxy Note 7. A month ago, Samsung announced the recall of 2.5 million Note 7s due to reports of the phones catching fire. Today, it has announced a much more drastic move, ending sales of the product entirely. The bigger ethical-business question has to do with whether the faster-and-faster production cycle of tech firms is leading companies like Samsung to put products on the market without sufficient testing. Shouldn’t a fire-prone battery have been detected before the phone was sold to consumers?
Of course, there’s also a question as to whether there’s really a problem here, in the sense of there being a pattern of failure in the industry. When a big failure becomes public, it’s tempting to let that failure stand as emblematic of an entire industry. But is it true? Overall, are tech products like smartphones manufactured well, or poorly?
>>>
LINK: The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 Is Finished (by Se Young Lee for Time)
Samsung Electronics scrapped its flagship Galaxy Note 7 smartphone on Tuesday less than two months after its launch, dealing a huge blow to its reputation and outlook after failing to resolve safety concerns.
Samsung announced the recall of 2.5 million Note 7s in early September following numerous reports of the phones catching fire and on Tuesday it finally pulled the plug on the $882 device in what could be one of the costliest product safety failures in tech history.
…
“(We) have decided to halt production and sales of the Galaxy Note 7 in order to consider our consumers’ safety first and foremost,” the South Korean firm said in a filing to the Seoul stock exchange….
What do you think?
Brought to you by:
Business Ethics Highlights 
Recent Comments