A Series of Unfortunate (and Exploding) Events

When launching their Note 7 phone, little did Samsung know these phones would go down in history not as the iPhone rival they were initially designed to be, but instead as the exploding phones of many internet memes. For those of you who don’t know what a meme is, it’s a virally-transmitted cultural symbol or social idea usually through captioned photos or videos that are intended to be funny, ridiculing an idea o product. Examples of such memes include pictures such as the following:

Despite the YouTube videos of burning phones, the negative stories and being mocked by the entire internet, Samsung does not seem to have been too badly tarnished by the bad press. The South Korean company actually made a quarterly profit of 9.2 trillion won ($7.2bn; £5.8bn), the firm’s highest since 2013. Indeed, the company’s results are mesmerizing taking into account their technological problems with their phones. However, the company’s flat screen televisions, semiconductors and chips have done extremely well, contributing greatly to the firm’s success. Furthermore, many experts agree that the firm’s brand loyalty is still very strong partially due to the firm’s success in recalling products quickly and in replacing phones for their customers.

In a recent investigation and presentation, Samsung claimed that it was the batteries that caused all the problems as you can read by clicking here  and that they are now working to avoid such problems in the development of their new S8 phone. In order to have their products in perfect state, Samsung is going to delay the phone’s launch instead of showing it at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, as had been expected. Nevertheless, there are some who claim that the delay is partially due to the court issues and rumoured corruption cases the company faces.

Although Samsung has faced many problems, I find it quite remarkable that they are still able to make such huge amounts of revenue and that they took the correct actions in order to avoid greater problems. Finally, it is extremely important to regain lost trust and thus, the delays in order to perfect its new products are a smart idea in the long run.

To end this post on a positive note, here is a link to view a funny video created by my friend Barbara Meuser about the Note 7 explosions. Check the video out here!You can follow her on instagram: @miss.babimeuser and on youtube: Babi Meuser

Sources:

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-38727651

http://www.ipsos-na.com/news-polls/pressrelease.aspx?id=7482