It’s fairly safe to say that the launch of the Galaxy Note 7 has not gone the way that Samsung would have hoped. What was supposed to be one of the biggest launches of the year for the South Korean giant has turned into something of a PR disaster. With reports of exploding batteries still rolling in, it seems Samsung has been hit with an unfortunate battery issue, and one that has led them to initiate a product recall. It’s said that the recall shouldn’t last too long, as Samsung will be switching battery suppliers and have the scale to move quickly with this sort of thing, but in regions such as India, where the device hasn’t even gone on sale yet, the Galaxy Note 7 is nowhere to be seen. Speaking of India specifically, Samsung India is giving those that had pre-booked the device a little thank you as an apology for the delay.
While the Galaxy Note 7 in other markets had a free 256GB microSD card, Gear Fit 2 and Gear VR – depending on where in the world you were and which network you chose – in India it didn’t come with such niceties. Instead, Samsung offered customers that pre-booked the Galaxy Note 7 the Gear VR at a cut price of RS 1,990 which is roughly $30 or so. Now however, to apologize for the delay with the Galaxy Note 7, the firm is offering this Gear VR free of charge to customers, as well as RS 3,330 ($50) to spend in the Oculus store to get apps and games purchases in anticipation for the Galaxy Note 7 arriving.
The official page from Samsung describes the battery issue simple as a “battery cell issue” and tells customers that “our customers’ safety is an absolute priority at Samsung” and the delay is to make sure that the final product is fit for purpose without issue. Samsung controls a large portion of the Indian smartphone market, and often battles it out with local name Micromax for the number one spot. The Galaxy Note 7 is perhaps too expensive for a lot of people to get their hands on in India, but for a popular flagship product to suffer such a setback in the region can’t have done them any favors.