Thousands of UAE consumers get compensation for exploding Galaxy Note 7s

The South Korean manufacturer of the device that has been the subject of a global recall says 55 per cent of local owners opted for compensation in the first few days of its programme.

The exploding Galaxy Note 7 will cost Samsung billions, it says. The company says it replaced 30,000 Galaxy Note 7s in the UAE during the first 10 days of its replacement programme. Andrew Zuis / AP

Samsung compensated 16,500 Galaxy Note 7 owners across the UAE in the first 10 days of its replacement and compensation programme following a spate of explosions of the device around the globe that was blamed on its batteries.

Sources told Aletihad, the Arabic-language sister newspaper of The National, that the programme over that period covered 55 per cent of all Note 7 phones sold in this country since August 9, a total of some 30,000 phones.

Samsung said it is committed to replacing Note 7s and/or compensating owners whether the phones were bought within the UAE or not.

On October 19, Samsung announced the launch of the programme, and also said it would stop production of the model worldwide.

The sources pointed out that 60 per cent of customers availing of the programme had chosen to replace the Note 7 with the Galaxy S7 Edge, securing compensation of about Dh650. The 40 per cent of customers who rejected any replacement received a full refund.

The exact cause of the battery malfunction is still under investigation, Samsung said.

The company cannot launch its next flagship phone, the Galaxy S8, without resolving the Note 7 mystery first.

“What is important is clearly investigating the cause,” said Lee Seung-woo, an analyst at IBK Securities. “It cannot develop a new product on top of the imperfect platform of the Galaxy Note 7, which had all of Samsung’s latest technologies.”

Samsung said it expects the Note 7 fiasco to cost it at least US$5.3 billion through early next year.

But despite the exploding batteries debacle, the South Korean company maintained its lead in the global smartphone market in the third quarter.

It had a 20 per cent market share in the quarter, well ahead of number two vendor Apple, according to reports last week from IDC and Strategy Analytics.

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