News reports of battery explosions in Samsung’s premier device Galaxy Note 7 has caused the company’s shares to fall by 3.52% on Thursday.
Samsung’s shares were down at 1.572 million won as of 0150 GMT. Besides reports of exploding batteries, concerns of delay in shipments could also have been a contributing factor.
Samsung has delayed shipments of its premier device.
“The firm announced the delays for quality control testing late on Wednesday and also said Galaxy Note 7 shipments to South Korea’s top three mobile carriers had been halted, rattling investor hopes for strong second-half mobile earnings,” a Reuters report said.
SK Telecom Co Ltd, KT Corp and LG Uplus Corp are the three mobile carriers that will not start selling Galaxy Note 7 as yet.
Samsung attributed the delay to new product quality tests done on the device. Last week, reports surfaced on the Internet over the device exploding while charging.
Images posted on Chinese social media website Baidu showed a new Galaxy Note 7 burnt in the aftermath of an explosion. Three Korean consumers who recently bought the smartphone also have claimed their device exploded while charging.
Galaxy Note 7 is in fact the first Samsung smartphone to have a USB-C connector. Sources say the third-party charging cables could caused the damage.
If reports of battery failures is confirmed to be true, it could be a major blow to the South Korean conglomerate.
In just a week, the battle for smartphone supremacy will heat up with Apple set to release the highly-anticipated iPhone 7. Samsung and Apple are bitter rivals in the smartphone wars. And both will aim for a hit that will help define the market.
The Galaxy Note 7 is Samsung’s latest phablet and the successor to the Galaxy Note 5. The latest in its line of stylus-equipped flagship phones, it has a slightly curved 5.7-inch display, includes S Pen stylus, Retina scanner, water resistant display, 12 megapixel rear camera and expandable storage of up to 256 GB.