Samsung has reportedly made the decision to pause production of the Galaxy Note 7 smartphone, after several replacement units caught fire.
According to Korea’s Yonhap News, citing “an official at a supplier for Samsung”, the pause in production was made in cooperation with safety officials in the USA, South Korea and China.
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“This measure includes a Samsung plant in Vietnam that is responsible for global shipments,” the official explained.
The halt in production was seemingly corroborated by Australia’s Telstra network. The carrier reportedly circulated an internal memo which revealed that Samsung has “temporarily paused the supply” of Note 7 smartphones.
In what must be a massive blow to Samsung, it looks like the Galaxy Note 7 replacements are also affected
Samsung’s latest phablet was first revealed on 2 August, before going on sale on 19 August. The company made the initial decision to recall the Note 7 in early September, after numerous cases of the handset catching fire.
The South Korean firm claimed that a battery fault with selected units was to blame for the handset catching fire.
The Note 7 is scheduled to be released in South Africa on 11 November but, if the production pause is confirmed, we can expect this date to slip back again.
We’ve contacted Samsung South Africa for a statement and will update the article when we receive an answer.
Update: The USA’s T-Mobile has announced that they’re halting all Note 7 sales and exchanges, calling on users to return the recalled or replacement phones.
“While Samsung investigates multiple reports of issues, T-Mobile is temporarily suspending all sales of the new Note 7 and exchanges for replacement Note 7 devices,” the carrier wrote on its website.
“Customers can still bring their recalled Note 7 or the new replacement Note 7, along with accessories they purchased from T-Mobile, to a T-Mobile store for a full refund and choose from any device in T-Mobile’s inventory.”
T-Mobile has also added that those who preordered the device are allowed to keep the included Gear Fit watch, microSD card and Netflix subscription.
