Samsung has announced plans to obliterate all remaining Galaxy Note 7 devices in the wild with a software update that prevents the device from working altogether.
The fire-catching Galaxy Note 7 calamity has caused untold damage to the Korean tech titan’s brand and bottom line, and the company has been working over the past few months to ensure that everyone who bought one of the phablets has been able to return it for a refund or exchange. So far, it says 93 percent of all Galaxy Note 7 devices have been returned, but those who somehow managed to miss the memo (or those who love dicing with death) will soon be facing a software update that eliminates the phone’s “ability to work as mobile devices,” according to a statement.
The software update will be rolling out on December 19, with a planned distribution lasting up to a month. It’s not entirely clear whether the software update will be enforced, or whether a user has to click to update, but once it’s actioned, it will kill the ability to charge the device.
First introduced in early August, the Galaxy Note 7 was met with positive reviewsbefore reports surfaced that exploding batteries were causing some people’s devices to catch fire. Samsung eventually had to pull the Note7 from the marketentirely, leading the company to a 30 percent year-on-year drop in profits for Q3.
Reports recently emerged that the technical problem was also affecting its Galaxy S7 smartphone line, though Samsung said there was no evidence of faults within the devices themselves.
This post originally appeared on VentureBeat by Paul Sawers.
Tagged with: defect, exploding, gear vr, mobile, samsung, smartphones
Source: Samsung Software Update Will Eliminate Galaxy Note 7 Devices By Preventing Them From Charging
