Samsung Note 7 Recall - Why Smartphone Wars are Leading to Safety Issues

Since the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 released in August 2016, it has been touted as one of the best and most capable smartphones to have ever been released.

Except now it has a pretty bad problem. It explodes.

The Note 7 has a battery-exploding issue affecting 0.1% of phones.
Image: KKJ.CN

Well, not the phone exactly, but the battery within the phone. And while this affects only 0.1% of phones, Samsung made the wise decision to issue a global recall due to safety concerns.

This led many to ask: why not keep the battery removable, so that "fixed" batteries could be mailed out to customers worldwide? Indeed, this solution would theoretically cheaper and more efficient.

The Note 7 does not have a removable battery.
Image: AndroidAuthority

However, I argue that the problem is due to another issue entirely: the smartphone wars. Due to deadlines, cutthroat competition, and ultimately share prices―companies have been focusing on making phones thinner, faster, and lighter. This also means reaching strict deadlines every year.

This led Samsung to integrate the battery within the Note 7 entirely, making the option of shipping out "corrected" batteries impossible. Another daunting question: who knows what safety processes were expedited to get the phone out ahead of the iPhone 7?

Now the company has to deal with both the expense of the recall, and the tarnished brand of both the parent company and the phone.