Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 Investigation Now Blames Batteries, Not Design, for Explosions

While initial reports had concluded that the causative factor in Samsung’s exploding Galaxy Note 7 debacle was the result of a “serious design flaw,” an even more recent report appears to do a full 180 on that assessment — instead pointing to the device’s batteries, and not a design flaw, as the reason that millions of Samsung’s 2016 flagships burst into flames.

Several consumer product safety groups had been conducting their own investigations into Samsung’s mysterious and spontaneously exploding Galaxy Note 7 handsets; however, all the while this was going on, Samsung was apparently conducting its own, behind-the-scenes investigation into the issue. And what the South Korean tech-titan was able to uncover, as told first by Reuters, is that the battery, in fact, is to blame for the handsets that succumbed to fire.

It was initially believed that Samsung’s voluntary push-and-shove of its supply chain partners in order to meet component orders ahead of a late-August, 2016 launch — a full calendar month ahead of Apple’s iPhone 7 unveiling event — resulted in critical oversights, and, in turn, the spontaneous combustion of a couple million Galaxy Note 7 batteries. However, according to sources familiar with the matter (but who were not authorized to speak a word of it), Samsung, as part of its testing, was actually able to replicate the same fires — and therefore, was able to determine that a design flaw was simply not the cause of the problem.

This latest report is coming to us at a critical time for Samsung — as the South Korean company tries to heal of its wounds, and give users the confidence they once had in the company and its products. To that end, according to the Reuters report, Samsung is gearing up to reveal its fourth-quarter sales figures on January 24; however, most investors hold a consensus that its now critical for the Galaxy-maker to provide customers with as detailed and compelling a case as possible insofar as why its Galaxy Note 7 devices were becoming engulfed in flames. More important, though, is that the company needs to somehow assure users — perhaps with an action plan of steps it is going to take — that the chances of a similar catastrophe cropping up in the future are non-existent.

“They’ve got to make sure they come clean and they’ve got to reassure buyers as to why this won’t happen again,” said Bryan Ma, a Singapore-based analyst for market research firm International Data Corporation (IDC).

The source concluded by saying that Samsung will more than likely reveal the official results of its investigation on January 23rd of this month, or just one day ahead of the company’s scheduled, fourth-quarter earnings call on Tuesday the 24th.