Samsung PH urges Note 7 owners to return the mobile device, now

MANILA — Samsung Philippines is now urging owners of the combustible Galaxy Note 7 to exchange their units for a Galaxy S7 or ask for a full refund from their place of purchase.

In a statement, Samsung Philippines said they are now “working closely with local telco partners and authorized dealers to urge consumer to take the next steps” which is as follows:

1. Exchange your Galaxy Note 7 for a Galaxy S7 edge or Galaxy S7, with the store to reimburse any price difference. Or,
2. A full refund.

Customers who purchased through Globe or Smart were also advised to contact their telco operator to exchange their units.

In an earlier advisory, Smart also urged their subscribers to contact their hotline *888 or to visit any of their nearby stores for the appropriate assistance. Globe likewise said they will facilitate the replacement of the device for their subscribers.

In a similar gesture, Globe said in a statement that they will discontinue selling Samsung Note7 and will no longer issue same device replacements to customers.

The telco has implemented a process to retrieve Note 7 units from customers and replace them with a device of equivalent value.

“We will be in touch with our customers within the next 4 days,” Globe said.

In an October 11 statement, Samsung global has advised its owners of Note7 to power down their units after reports of supposedly safe replacement units of the Note7 also caught fire. Samsung also announced that they are coordinating with their carrier and retail partners to stop sales of the Note7.

“Consumers with either an original Galaxy Note7 or replacement Note 7 device should power down and stop using the device and take advantage of the remedies available,” Samsung said.

source: interaksyon.com

Samsung suspends production of recalled Note 7: report

SEOUL, South Korea — Samsung Electronics has suspended production of its Galaxy Note 7 smartphone, a report said Monday, a month after a recall prompted by battery explosions and a day after two major overseas distributors halted replacements.

Samsung, the world’s largest smartphone maker, declined to comment on the report by South Korea’s Yonhap news agency, which was sourced to an unidentified official with an unnamed Samsung supplier.

The official told Yonhap the decision to temporarily halt production was taken in cooperation with consumer safety regulators from South Korea, the United States and China.

Samsung decided on September 2 to halt the sale of the Galaxy Note 7 and recall those sold after complaints that its lithium-ion battery exploded while charging.

With images of charred phones flooding social media, the unprecedented recall was a humiliation for a firm that prides itself as an icon of innovation and quality.

The recall process initially stumbled with some mixed messages, but seemed to be on track until last week when reports emerged of similar problems with some of the replacement phones.

On Sunday, US telecommunications firm AT&T and German rival T-Mobile said they would halt exchanges of recalled Samsung Galaxy Note 7s pending further investigations.

The announcement saw Samsung’s share price plunge by as much as four percent in early morning trade on Monday — even before the Yonhap report came out.

At midday, Samsung shares were trading at 1.65 million won — down 3.2 percent from Friday’s close.

AT&T said it would still offer customers the option to exchange Galaxy Note 7s for another Samsung smartphone or other device of their choice.

T-Mobile said it was halting sales of the smartphone, as well as the exchanges.

Samsung has so far declined to confirm any problem with its replacement phones.

The South Korean conglomerate’s handling of the Note 7 recall has placed a spotlight on management at a time when it is navigating a tricky generational power transfer within the founding Lee family.

Industry experts have criticised the Lee dynasty for controlling the vast group through a complex web of cross shareholdings, although they only directly own about five percent of total stocks.

Samsung on Friday issued a stronger-than-expected operating profit forecast for the third quarter despite the impact of the recall that, according to some analysts, could cost up to $2 billion.

source: interaksyon.com

Galaxy S7 boosts Samsung’s best quarter in over two years

SEOUL — Tech giant Samsung Electronics Co Ltd is poised to issue guidance for its best quarterly profit in more than two years, propelled by a surge in mobile earnings on the back of robust sales of its flagship Galaxy S7 smartphones.

The South Korean giant will disclose its estimates for second-quarter earnings on Thursday, with analysts predicting a strong mobile division contributed to a 13 percent jump in operating profit from the same period a year earlier.

The average forecast from a Thomson Reuters survey of 16 analysts tips Samsung to report April-June operating profit of 7.8 trillion won ($6.8 billion), the highest since an 8.5 trillion won profit in January-March of 2014.

The mobile division of the world’s top maker of smartphones and memory chips was likely its top earner for the second straight quarter with a 4.3 trillion won profit, according to the survey. Samsung surprised many with better-than-expected first-quarter earnings, and issued guidance for a further pickup in April-June.

“Galaxy S7 sales are better than expected in the first half, and the semiconductor business is also outperforming rivals,” said KTB Asset Management’s Lee Jin-woo. The fund manager estimated the firm’s quarterly operating profit would also stay strong in both the third and fourth quarters at between 7 trillion won and 8 trillion won in each.

Samsung’s smartphone business had been squeezed before the start of this year between Apple Inc, at the high end of the market, and Chinese rivals like Huawei Technologies [HWT.UL] in the budget segment. But the Galaxy S7 has provided a catalyst for the earnings rebound, likely putting the mobile business on track to record its first annual profit growth in three years.

Some analysts say Samsung shipped around 16 million Galaxy S7s in April-June, with a higher-priced curved-screen version outselling its flat-screen counterpart and boosting margins. Lackluster sales of offerings from rivals such as Apple and LG Electronics also helped reduced marketing expenses, they said.

“While operating profit margins for the mobile phone business will decline in the third and fourth quarters as the Galaxy S7 effect fades, operating profit will continue to grow on an annual basis,” Korea Investment & Securities said in a report.

As its smartphones thrive, Samsung’s chip business – last year’s key profit driver – probably saw quarterly profit sink to its lowest in nearly two years due to weak demand from makers of other smartphones and personal computers.

But signs of some price recovery for DRAM chips starting last month and Samsung’s dominance in the premium solid-state disc drive market with its 3D NAND chip production technology suggest a pickup in coming months, analysts said.

source: interaksyon.com

2 jumbo phones from Samsung ahead of expected new iPhone

NEW YORK — Samsung has unveiled two new Android smartphones with jumbo screens as it seeks to recapture some of the sales lost to Apple after larger iPhones came out last year.

Samsung said Thursday that the new Galaxy Note 5 and S6 Edge Plus will start shipping Aug. 21 in the U.S. and Canada. Usually, Note phones don't come out until well after Apple's new iPhone models in September.

The timing reflects a shift in fortunes for a company that pioneered jumbo phones with the original Note in 2011. Now, Samsung needs to beat Apple to the punch, or risk seeing its products drowned out by all the attention on the iPhone, IDC analyst Ramon Llamas said.

The new phones from Samsung have screens measuring 5.7 inches diagonally, the same as last year's Note 4, yet both are lighter and thinner. They are comparable to Apple's 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus, the larger of the two new iPhones. Samsung's Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge phones, which are closer in size to the regular iPhone 6, came out in April.

The Note 5 will cost $696 to $740 without a contract, depending on the carrier. The Edge Plus will cost about $75 more. The iPhone 6 Plus sells for about $750. T-Mobile is throwing in a year of Netflix with both phones, while Sprint is giving away a low-end Samsung tablet with a two-year contract. Advance orders begin in the U.S. on Thursday.

Samsung Electronics Co. also said its Samsung Pay mobile payment service will debut in its home country of South Korea on Aug. 20. Testing in the U.S. will begin Aug. 25, with a formal launch on Sept. 28.

Although there's competition from Apple Pay and Google's upcoming Android Pay, Samsung is hoping its payments system will catch on with the inclusion of a technology that mimics the old-school, magnetic signals from credit-card swipes. That allows it to work with a wider range of merchants, though it still won't work everywhere cards are accepted.

Samsung also teased an upcoming smartwatch, the Gear S2. It will have a round face, rather than the rectangular design in Apple Watch and previous Samsung watches. A video from Samsung suggests snazzy graphics to rival Apple Watch. More details will come at the IFA tech show in Berlin next month.

As for the phones, Samsung is looking to play to its strengths.

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GALAXY NOTE 5

Though it appeals to a niche audience, the Note is popular for including a stylus to take notes and annotate images on the screen. The update provides quicker access to apps and features that use the stylus. A clicking mechanism makes the stylus easier to pull out.

One new feature ends the need to print out and rescan electronic forms to sign or fill out. Just write on the PDF document directly before saving and sending.

Screenshots can get annoying when you're just snapping what's visible on the screen. An article or list of directions you're trying to save might take four or five shots. A new feature called scroll capture combines all those shots into one image, though you still need to snap them one section at a time.

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GALAXY S6 EDGE PLUS

The screens on Samsung's Edge phones are curved on both sides. The feature proved popular in this spring's S6 Edge, which used one of those sides for quick access to friends and other frequent contacts. Now, you can use it for quick access to favorite apps, too.

There won't be a stylus, though, as last year's Note Edge phone had.

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COMMON TO BOTH PHONES

The new phones incorporate the improved camera technology found in this spring's S6 phones. Added is live streaming of video you're capturing, a practice made popular by Meerkat and Twitter's Periscope apps. Samsung's video will appear on YouTube. The front cameras take sharper selfies, at 5 megapixels rather than 3.7.

The new phones also borrow design elements from the S6. They sport aluminum frames and glass backs rather than plastic. The back of the Note 5 is slightly curved for a better grip, while the Edge gets its curve on the front. Either way, it doesn't feel as boxy as the regular S6.

Borrowing another page from Apple's playbook, the phones are coming out just a week after they are announced. It used to take Samsung a month or longer.

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THE LANDSCAPE

After the larger iPhones came out, Samsung could no longer proclaim to have "The Next Big Thing."

The S6 phones this spring emphasized design instead, but sales fell below expectations, as Apple dominated the high-end market. Meanwhile, rival Android phone makers have been able to offer decent cameras, displays and speeds for less money than Samsung phones. Although it's still the leading smartphone maker, Samsung has reported five consecutive quarters of profit decline.

"There's an urgency to show that Samsung can still stand up to the challenge that is Apple and everybody else out there," Llamas said. "For a while, Samsung was the 'be all and end all' of Android devices. Now, it's a different market."

source: philstar.com