Samsung May Bring Back Its Fire-Plagued Galaxy Note 7 -
By JEYUP S. KWAAKMARCH 28, 2017
SEOUL, South Korea — The star-crossed Samsung Galaxy Note 7 — the ambitious new smartphone whose problems with fires prompted an unprecedented
and costly product axing, warnings from airlines and a host of one-liners from late-night comedians — may be headed back into the hands of consumers.
But Mr. Ma said the decision to bring the Note 7 back to market carries the risk of “coming across as being petty.”
Safety concerns over the phone led many regulators across the world to ban the phones on board flights.
The company said in a statement that some of its existing Note 7s would be “considered to be used as refurbished or rental phones,” while others
would be subjected to recycling processes, extracting parts like camera modules as well as metals like copper, nickel, gold and silver.
The announcement came as Samsung was preparing to unveil on Wednesday the newest version of its most popular smartphone
line, the Galaxy S8, which is viewed as the company’s first big effort to put the Note 7 debacle behind it.
Activists from Greenpeace last month interrupted the company’s news conference at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, a major mobile network
and smartphone technology trade show, to press the issue.
The company is still working on a more direct successor to the Note 7, a broad device with a big screen sometimes called a phablet
because it combines the attributes of phone and a tablet.