The recall of the Galaxy Note 7 was not only a first in the history of Samsung, but a first in the entire mobile industry. We’ve not seen a recall on this sort of scale ever before, and especially not one that was started due to safety concerns from a faulty battery. For what it’s worth, Samsung has tried their best to make sure that customers are informed, and that they get a safe replacement device as soon as Samsung can manage. Many customers have now received a replacement device or have one on the way to them, and next month will see the return of the Galaxy Note 7 to shelves all over the world, but there is the argument that Samsung could have done more here. Chinese state TV certainly thinks so, as a recent post published on the CCTV website has attached Samsung for their handling of the recall in China.
In China, Samsung didn’t need to recall all devices sold, because the battery inside of them was not made by Samsung SDI and was therefore deemed to be safe. This is because devices sold in China must be made in China, and this restricted Samsung from using their own batteries from South Korea. As such, devices marked as “Made in China” were deemed to be safe, but CCTV argues that by not recalling devices in China, but making sure the United States were given a video apology and a full recall smacked of “arrogance” and that “Samsung’s discriminatory policy has caused discontent from Chinese consumers”. It’s felt that because China did not receive the same sort of attention as the United States or other markets, this was some sort of discrimination against Chinese customers. Samsung did, after looking into it, have to recall 1,858 devices that were sold in the region as a test scheme, but other than that Samsung did not start a similar recall as we’ve seen in the States and elsewhere.
It’s likely that the Chinese state TV network is merely looking for another way of pushing users towards domestic choices, as it has been known to do in the past. After all, TV networks ran by the state, are often ran for the state, and will have China’s best interests at heart. This logically leads to “throwing shade” at non-domestic companies in order to shine a light on the likes of Xiaomi, Huawei, ZTE and co. It’s unlikely that Samsung will respond to these comments, given that the firm has done everything it can and should have done already by now.