So for those of you who have been living under a rock, Samsung is facing major issues with their Note 7 phones. Their flagship mobile product is literally a ticking time bomb. The situation over there is grim, this faux pas has cost the company billions, and tarnished its reputation worldwide. With the fierce competition in the mobile arena, this could not have been worse timing. Many are calling this a massive win for those Apple guys out in Cupertino, and I can’t say that they are wrong. Samsung is a big company, and I’m sure they will survive the storm, and their shareholders will recover their losses, but the question that remains on my mind is simple, How in the Hell did they let this happen.
As a consumer I expect that the products that I use are tested rigorously, I would think that it’s not good business for your products to potentially injure your customers or damage their property. The fact that a company that people trust and a company that has millions of dollars available in R&D money was so careless as to allow this to happen, and then the mess they made with the recall, is frankly a bit unnerving. Is this the world we now live in, a world where consumer safety takes a backseat to getting a product to market expeditiously, takes a back seat to profit. I am no idealist, and cynical though it may be, I know that is the way the world works.
That being said, I think something needs to change, and the consumer market will punish Samsung accordingly. I know I for one am a Samsung customer, I am a note 5 owner, and still love that phone. The hard disks in the computer I am writing this on are Samsung, as is the display. My bedroom TV is Samsung. I have never had a problem with their products, and would likely have picked up note 7. Now with whats going on, the next time I go shopping, I may look elsewhere. Is that really enough, is the fact that they will lose business enough to ensure they won’t make the same errors again. I think there needs to be some better oversight on products like this; the government (at least in the US) has started to react, including banning the note 7 from air travel.
My question is should there be some mechanism to test these products in some official manner, before they can endanger the public, much like the USDA tests meat. Then again the USDA missises stuff all the time, so should we really rely on the government for a solution. Maybe there is no solution, maybe it is just going to happen (I mean its not just Samsung, lest we forget the exploding iphones).
All told consumers have a short memory, and I won’t say I will never buy a Samsung product again, just don’t expect me at launch day for the Note 8.
