Expected to be the hottest new phone on the market in 2016, the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 was unveiled on August 2nd three weeks before the iPhone and was expected to reach about $19 million in sales. This new phone was believed to be a hit, being the first to beat an iPhone and steal some of the smart phone market share. Unfortunately for Samsung, just five days after the Note 7 release, this phone became more than just the hottest new phone on the market. The Note 7 went down in flames. Literally.
On August 24th, 2016, the first Note 7 explosion was reported and surfaced into the media. Although Note 7 sales continued throughout August and into early September, many other reports of explosions began to surface and were being brought to media attention. With so many reports of explosions, Samsung announced a total recall of 2.5 million phones on September 2nd, 2016 due to a faulty battery defect. But Samsung Engineers were never able to get a phone to explode, and had no proof or back up that it was in fact a battery defect that was causing the explosions. Therefore, Samsung just replaced the battery with a different manufacturer and sent out the Note 7 replacements right away. Samsung thought that they had fixed the problem with the Note 7, but little did they realize that their problems had just begun.
It was when the Southwest Airline Flight 994 was evacuated before take-off as a response to a replacement Note 7 going up in smoke that the real problems from Samsung began. After this incident, the FAA put a traveling ban on the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 and Samsung had to cease all production of the Note 7. Launched on August 19th and killed off on October 11th, the Note 7 lasted two months on the market.
Since this incident Samsung has been blamed and reported for its unethical behavior in the matter. People believe that Samsung acted unethically in rushing their Note 7 release date to beat the iPhone 7, and that they acted unethically again in sending out dangerous replacements after the recall. The odds are against Samsung at the time. People and Stakeholders are hesitant in trusting the company and their products.
Sources:
http://www.popsci.com/samsung-note-7-catching-fire#page-2
http://businessethicscases.blogspot.com/2016/11/samsung-galaxy-note-7-explosion-2016.html
Samsung Galaxy Note 7 
I agree that Samsung acted in an unethical behavior when they release the note 7 in order to try to beat the iPhone 7 to the market. They rushed with their product, and did not do all of the testing that they should have for it.
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Yeah they really rushed the release of the Note 7 to try to beat the iPhone 7. I’m sure Samsung wishes that they had not done so now.
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It’s interesting that Samsung didn’t conduct more research before they reissued the Note 7. You’d think that they’d be more concerned with their customers’ safety and a potential lawsuit rather than simply making a higher profit than Apple.
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Exactly! I think that was Samsung’s first mistake in this whole thing. Pushing the Note 7 out before it was ready in hopes to make a better profit.
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I agree that rushing the release may have been unethical, I think they should have done more rigorous testing and talking to the customers whose phones had exploded to try to discern a trigger for the explosions.
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Samsung definitely should have done a lot more testing to figure out why the phone was exploding rather than just assuming it was the battery!
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I do believe that Samsung acted unethically by rushing the product, but I also believe that they have done their best to make up for the problem they have caused.
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Samsung would have responded well to this first issue of rushing the product, but after the recall is when they really acted unethically. Not testing the phones to be sure it was a battery issue and sending out back faulty phones.
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