The Galaxy Note 7 has been making headlines for weeks now, and for all the wrong reasons, at that. Samsung’s latest flagship launched in late August and was recalled just a few weeks after that as first reports of the device catching fire and exploding started emerging. Samsung conducted an investigation and claimed it had managed to fix the issue which turned its phone into a fire hazard but unfortunately, that proved to be little more than wishful thinking. A couple of months, two recalls, and one permanent discontinuation later, the Galaxy Note 7 is still one of the most talked about phones in the industry.
Of course, that’s mostly due to the long-term consequences of this fiasco. While the Samsung Galaxy brand is obviously too big to fail due to a single disaster such as this one, there’s no doubt that the Galaxy Note 7 has negatively affected its value. That consequently leads to weaker sales, lower revenue, and significant drops in Samsung stock prices. Given how Samsung is by far the largest business in South Korea, this ordeal is also bound to be felt by the Far Eastern country in general. More specifically, Reuters reports that the damage caused by the Galaxy Note 7 launch will negatively impact South Korea’s gross domestic product (GDP) in the third quarter of the year. While the Bank of Korea recently estimated that the country’s GDP will grow by 0.7% in Q3 2016, Reuters’ sources from the South Korean finance ministry are now forecasting a drop of up to 0.2%.
If it turns out these reports are correct, potential financial consequences of the Galaxy Note 7 fiasco could easily be even greater during the last quarter of the year. That’s because Samsung’s latest flagship still wasn’t permanently discontinued by September 30th and the entire ordeal was seemingly less severe than it is today. Samsung has yet to finish its second investigation of the matter and hopefully finally figure out what went wrong with the Galaxy Note 7. In the meantime, the company is rather reluctant to talk to the media and hasn’t disclosed much ever since permanently halting the production of its latest flagship. The last piece of official information Samsung released had to do with rumors of the company acquiring a French audio equipment manufacturer Focal. As reported by Reuters, Samsung dismissed those rumors earlier today.