[Nav-i-gator]

Originally Posted by riteshritesh

Couldn't resist posting this....It would have been better, had it been available. Fictitious products cannot be compared to working phones.

It was sold in many countries. In India too, many employees get the phone much earlier than the launch, for user testing purpose. I got your drift though, never used it myself (never used an Iphone either, too expensive for what it offers). The expert reviews were rave generally (one reviewer reviewed it fully under water too!)

For the other part, the mobile division works differently. Here the prime focus is on nos (of units to be sold) and minimizing unsold inventory at distributor level before the next version is launched (usually every year). Reducing service costs is not the main factor (as product life cycle is short).

[hemanth.anand]

Amazing specs, Amazing looks but alas it died an unfortunate death. I was waiting for it to come to India soon so that I could buy the Note5 whose prices would be reduced.

The reason is now revealed that the limits of Lithium ion batteries have been reached (Crossed rather), hopefully they come up with some solution. I feel they should go back to their 'safe' removable battery designs.

So, What next? It will be Interesting to see if Samsung comes up with Note 6 or Note 8. Note 8 would be better because Note 6 would mean 'Going backward'
A completely new name like "Draw" or something similar would also be better I guess.

An article at some loss estimates that the Korean company could face:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/samsung-...one-1476177331

[F150]

Poor decision by the project management team of the NOTE 7 to cut corners on quality control and quality assurance. Someone has failed at the cost benefit analysis on the quality activity that was skipped and this person might have been fired already.

I currently own a NOTE 5 and I was going to skip the NOTE 7 anyway. With this incident I have no qualms waiting for NOTE 8.

[Midas]

Originally Posted by riteshritesh

We have been service providers to Samsung India ( not the Mobile division. Our relation ended in 2010) and the only thing the Intl.

Mobile division is different. Moreover, if you look at the recent history, you can see that it became the beast in mobile phone domain from 2010 onwards after launching galaxy series (of course popularity of Android also contributed). So, your past experiences may not be valid now.

Aggressiveness of the company was one of the main reasons for it's success in this domain. Ironically, same was the reason for failure of Note 7 too.

PS: I was an employee from 2010-15 (not exactly in mobile phone division though)

[kbk_75]

Where are the snarky Apple-targeted ads now, Samsung?

Funny how they own-goaled whilst trying to one-up Apple based on stories of how 'minor' the 7 and 7 Plus iPhone upgrades were going to be! Now they can eat crow!

[arunphilip]

Originally Posted by arunphilip

It makes me wonder what (if any) role the marketing department had in terms of forcing the time to market and whether that led to any engineering or testing compromises.

As suspected, there is attention on whether the product was rushed to market:

Industry experts are scrutinizing Samsung’s supply chain to see whether the rush to market caused technical problems or led to corners being cut.

... or whether management pressure led to engineering/testing compromises:

Internally, Samsung’s corporate culture may also have compounded any issues. Two former Samsung employees ... described the workplace as militaristic, with a top-down approach where orders came from people high above who did not necessarily understand how product technologies actually worked.

Damage control and CYA seemed to have kicked in prior to the first recall itself, with management ensuring there was no paper/digital trail:

It did not help that the hundreds of Samsung testers trying to pinpoint the problem could not easily communicate with one another: Fearing lawsuits and subpoenas, Samsung told employees involved in the testing to keep communications about the tests offline — meaning no emails were allowed, according to the person briefed on the process.

Also, an interesting snippet about Samsung. Back in 1995 when Samsung was faced with an issue of defective phones, then chairman Mr. Lee Kun-hee burned a pile of 150,000 of these defective phones to demonstrate Samsung's commitment to quality.

I would only advise their current chairman not to emulate his father's footsteps, as lithium batteries and fire do not play nice.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/12/bu...ated.html?_r=3

[AbhiJ]

As if the first fiasco was not enough, what was really surprising to me if that the replacement phone also caught fire!

So first they made a defective product. Then recalled it, and re supplied it without completely understanding or fixing the problem.

That's just unprofessional.

I own a S7 Edge and absolutely love the phone. Samsung was finally getting their hardware and software act together!

[kbk_75]

No doubt the S7/Edge/Note were getting to be amongst the most desirable phones out there in some ways. What they've done with this whole episode is hand Google a massive handout by sending customers who will not switch from Android their way. And for those that are willing to give iOS a shot, Apple needs to majorly up production on the iPhone 7 Plus to capitalise on this windfall.

It will be interesting to see how Samsung comes back from this in the year or two ahead. It's just a good thing that nobody died because of their phone. It could so easily have happened if your phone spontaneously combusted while you slept.

[Turbanator]

S7/S7 Edge were doing reasonably well until they announced & Launched Note7 thereafter most guys went after Note 7.

They should now make S7 & S7 edge more competitive, to keep people in their ecosystem, perhaps increase warranty and lower prices and maintain their turnover. Their profits are gone for this year surely.

[narayans80]

What does Samsung plan to do to owners of the Note 7? Replace them with S7 free of cost?

[GTO]

Originally Posted by AbhiJ

I own a S7 Edge and absolutely love the phone. Samsung was finally getting their hardware and software act together!

You can say that again. I'm going to complete a year with my S6 Edge soon. It's an awesome phone, be it in terms of hardware, speed, software, battery life...haven't spotted a single bug so far. Even my brother who uses an iPhone 6 loves my phone!!

Damn surprised that Samsung goofed up so badly; the first instance was bad enough, but those problems resurfacing was even worse.

This incident is a reminder that there are no shortcuts to quality.

[riteshritesh]

Originally Posted by Midas

Mobile division is different.

I was referring to vendor relationship/ back end supply chain. It used to be a classic case of their top intl. logistics guys not understanding anything in the supply chain and how things worked in the Indian Customs, but still trying to dream of the impossible at almost no cost to the company.It is still the same today, from what I hear from other Customs Brokers, who 'try' to work with Samsung India.

Aggressiveness in Sales of a finished product is required for sure.

Two former Samsung employees ... described the workplace as militaristic, with a top-down approach where orders came from people high above who did not necessarily understand how product technologies actually worked.

I can totally relate to this, with my past experience with the company as a service providing vendor.

[Sunrock]

I say good riddance !!
Its time they got removed from the electronics scene with their over-hyped sub- Quality devices, typical Korean dimension. Good marketing, giving cheaper impression, but in fact costly and top it all will a product that works well for three months. This will help give the edge to more deserving companies like HTC. Which can now use this opportunity to shine.

[AbhiJ]

Originally Posted by Sunrock

I say good riddance !!
Its time they got removed from the electronics scene with their over-hyped sub- Quality devices, typical Korean dimension. Good marketing, giving cheaper impression, but in fact costly and top it all will a product that works well for three months. This will help give the edge to more deserving companies like HTC. Which can now use this opportunity to shine.

No offense intended but when was the last time you used a Samsung flagship device?

I first used Samsung personally with the S2 which I bought at launch. That phone is still working well with a staff of mine to this day.

I did not like that S3, S4, S5 - Because of the software and the design. S6 improved the software but I didnt bite because of the smaller battery and un-expandable storage.

With the S7 and S7 Edge Samsung have really hit the nail on the head. I am a demanding user and the phone achieves perfect harmony in : Fantastic Display, Great Cameras, Fast performance, Usable Touchwiz, Respectable battery life and killer looks.

I bought one phone in August, One in September, and Another one now in October. That should tell you how happy I am with the phone.

[Nav-i-gator]

One can't really write-off samsung, just with this one incident of quality slip-off. True, mobile division is the major source of revenues for them, but that is not the only thing they do. When I was working with samsung, we came to know/see a lot inside info which, though public, is not really widely known. In their office in gurgaon, one can observe a part of it. appliances in canteen - samsung, TVs and conferencing equipments - samsung, Climate control (ACs) - samsung, laptops - samsung, even the desk phones were samsung made, data and IT support - samsung (SDS, another big subsidiary of samsung), media and advertising - again a samsung subsidiary, softwares - predominantly samsung's own. Network for reliance Jio is built, operated and maintained by samsung. Last I heard, Samsung won the rights to supply short range howitzers to Indian army and are competing for automatic movement sensing perimeter defense guns to deploy near LOC. Globally, samsung has a big shipping, mining and construction businesses as well (Petronas towers and Burj khalifa was built by them). Major parts for many rival company smartphones are sourced from samsung (incliding for Iphones).

To top it all, samsung is a major player in all segments of phones - basic phones, low range, mid range, premium and super premium. No other company has succeeded in cracking that code. To support that, samsung has thousands of distributors, big and small, spread across India and hundreds of service centres as well. It has faught hard, and survived the onslaught at both ends from apple in premium and local/chinese brands in low and mid-range. They are not going to lose it all.

They have serious issues with company culture, and many dissatisfied employees/ex-employees/business partners. But their products have largely been well built and loaded with useful softwares (multi-window for example). They are the current nokia for sure - innovating and daring as well in hardware/software areas.