On Friday, the US Department of Transportation banned the Galaxy Note 7 from all flights in the US. This means that you won’t just be told to power down your phone and not use it during the flight, it means that you won’t even be able to get through the TSA with the Galaxy Note 7. Now Transport Canada has followed suit and has now banned the Galaxy Note 7 from all flights within Canada. And sadly, it won’t be long before this news hits other countries and the Galaxy Note 7 will be banned on any flight, anywhere in the world.
The Galaxy Note 7 has had perhaps the worst launch ever, and was the fastest phone to get canned in recent history. It launched in mid-August in a handful of markets – including the US and South Korea. In early September, reports began surfacing of the device catching on fire, and some even exploding. Samsung acted quickly and recalled the device. They then brought the device back to market in late September with a new battery – as they thought that was the issue. Then within the past two weeks, the replacement Galaxy Note 7’s began exploding and Samsung was forced to do a second recall and ultimately canned the device. Which means that those that have a Galaxy Note 7 are needing to turn theirs in and either get a Galaxy S7, Galaxy S7 Edge or another device altogether.
This whole ordeal has definitely damaged the Galaxy brand and damaged the Galaxy Note brand even more. There have been rumors that Samsung may retire the Galaxy Note brand and go with a new name next year, but that has not been confirmed by the company just yet. They are also expecting to take a $3 billion loss over the next two quarters, due to these two recalls. So it’s definitely not a good look for Samsung, and now that the device is being banned by the government in many countries, the brand is being damaged even more.
If you’re planning on flying anywhere anytime soon and you have a Galaxy Note 7, you better get that exchanged for a new device, because it’s not going to be allowed to fly.