It was always highly likely, but now it's official: The Galaxy Note 7 is dead.
Samsung has "permanently discontinued" the Galaxy Note 7, according to The Wall Street Journal. Reporting from Seoul, the outlet says that Samsung, in a filing to Korean regulators, said it would "permanently cease sales of the device." The move comes less than a day after it told all Note 7 owners (both old and new) to switch off and return their phones.
"Taking our customer's safety as our highest priority, we have decided to halt sales and production of the Galaxy Note 7," the company said.
Samsung now faces the task of collecting and disposing of the 2.5 million Galaxy Note 7s in the wild, and what must be at least hundreds of thousands of unsold phones in stores and warehouses. Estimates put the overall cost of the Note 7 debacle at $17 billion; the loss in consumer trust is unquantifiable, and will surely impact Samsung's next flagship phone, the Galaxy S8.
It's unprecedented move to round off a saga dominated by extraordinary events. A reminder of how we got here:
Following worldwide reports of battery failures and fires with the Galaxy Note 7 in early September, including nearly 100 cases in the U.S. alone, Samsung and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) announced a complete official recall of all Galaxy Note 7s in the U.S. Similar movements were made in Canada, as well as throughout Europe and Asia. Regions in which the phone had yet to launch simply postponed shipments of phones.
Weeks later, with the recall in full swing and old Note 7s being replaced by hundreds of thousands of new "safe" models, reports started to arise of the same exact failures happening with these replacement phones. With consumers quickly losing faith in the Note 7 name, carriers in early October voluntarily offered free returns and exchanges for all Note 7s, and eventually stopped selling the phone altogether.
If you still have a Galaxy Note 7, you can return it to the place of purchase for a refund or alternative Samsung phone.
