Table of Contents

Table of contents ………………………………………………………………………………….1

1.0 Introduction 2

  1.1 Samsung research ……………………………………………………………………………2

2.0 Literature review 2

2.1 Theoretical framework 3

3.0 Methodology 5

   3.1 Data collection method ………………..……..……………………………..………………5

4.0 Findings ………………………………………………………………………………………6

    4.1 Theories on the possible causes of failure in note 7……………………………………......6

5.0 Recommendation …………………………………………………………………………....10

6.0 Conclusion …………………………………………………………………………………..11

Reference ………………………………………………………………………………………..12

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Introduction

1.1 Samsung research

The research paper will be on Samsung which will basically focus on it in the electronics industry in relation to its growth up to date in relation to the just failed note 7. There has been a problem at Samsung Electronics after one of its best selling products line caused a lot of problems in the market. This follows a failure in its technological operations where one of its Smartphone physically explodes while charging (Wee, 2016). There are physically more problems that can be associated with the faults that Samsung products experienced in its production. These problems are mainly built in and therefore causing losses at the company. Samsung has always been given credit in the Smartphone industry, therefore, the faults being experienced with the Note 7 type of mobile phone could see the market reducing at a very high rate as people opt for other alternatives like using the Apple products (Park, 2013). The shifting of the market could also see the competitors perform better at offering the same kind of services, therefore, making the company lose the market at a glance. 

2.0 Literature review

            Samsung Electronics is one of the leading companies in terms of offering the best mobile phone services, digital televisions, computers, air conditioning appliances, memory, panels, and other LCD panels. The main market for the products is that of Smartphones and the tablets which mostly accounts for over 30 percent for the Smartphones and 20 percent for the tablets according to the data count release of 2015 (Singh, B. (2016). Samsung has basically focused its efforts on the tablets and Smartphone’s business which is a business that is getting flooded with mobile phones and this causes the market to be overcrowded meaning the company has to invest in being unique. For the past 70 years, the company has always dedicated its resources, time and money in making the world better by having the latest technology, the best skyscraper, construction technologies, medicine, hotels, finance, petrochemical, and so much more (Wee, 2016). By having the best manpower, services and products which are reliable, and innovation the company has been leading in terms of high-tech manufacturing products. Samsung has a total of more than 370,000 employees and has opened more than 80 branches in the world.

2.1 Theoretical framework

Samsung Electronics has been on the market for more than 7 decades and considering this time period, it is generally very possible that the market experience has grown big significantly. But even after so much experience in making quality and loved products, the latest failure of the note 7 has brought down the market share tremendously with other companies such as Apple taking over the market. The main reason for the manufacture of the Samsung Note 7 was to create a competition for the second largest selling Smartphone Company Apple iPhone 7. Offering an alternative for the consumers by manufacturing the note 7 brought in many problems than the company has ever experienced since its birth (Wee, 2016). There are significantly fewer channels and windows of opportunities for the company especially after the failure of the note 7. If the problem is not fixed immediately, then there are many possibilities for the Smartphone industry at Samsung to be under pressure as this line of business is what has been the major income for the company. This failure in terms of the Note 7 could be the worst at this company as it happened during a crucial Christmas season. With this ideology in mind, the competitors could see their sales rise above the skylines since there is less competition for the same market. Samsung was now left with minimal options on what to do next since the chances of coming up with a new note 7 to replace the failed one are less.

 At this particular period of the year, Samsung had sold more than three million plus units of note 7. Eventually, the company recalled the note 7 and requested all the global partners not to continue with the sale of this phone. The recall was due to the fact that the phone was experiencing some problems especially with the batteries being said to be flammable and also the idea that the replacement for the note 7 now caused more problems of overheating while being used. In the United States and in Australia, the note 7 services have been halted due to the fact that the replacement was overheating excessively; therefore, the user experience became worse than it was before (Wee, 2016).  A similar case happened with the technology and standards Korean Agency confirming that actually there were problems with the just released note 7 and its replacements also had a number of issues.

Samsung had a continued increase and dominance in the Smartphone industry due to the previous release of the S7 and the S7 edge which both brought in a huge profit in the business and there were hopes that the note 7 would continue with the cycle only to be disappointed by its failure. This particular incident coincidentally happened a time when their competitors were seriously marketing their new products the iPhone 7 and also the Google Pixel, therefore, making the competition fierce and overheated on their part. The failure could become worse with some users becoming more skeptical in any other Smartphone that is manufactured by Samsung. Up to date, the company has kept silent on the possible reasons as to why the phones became overheated in an actual sense. The recall of the note 7 would not affect the business since the business components were still up and running mainly the display and the semiconductor businesses (Morita et al., 2017). During this period of between July and September, the company had made profits of more than $7 billion and the figure is slightly higher than the previous prediction. Much impact would now be felt after the company brand image of the note 7 brought loses and but the overall fiscal outlook for the year 2017 is not affected but remains very solid.

 

3.0 Methodology

3.1 Data collection method

The main method of data collection is the qualitative method through interviews and also focusing on the various fields of study and concern. The interview is the best methodology to use to get access to get full details on user experience on the Note 7 device. The interview was conducted in the field, streets, homesteads, offices and any resting places in various cities so it is a general interview. The purpose of the interview is to define the user experience and how they feel about the just failed note 7 and if they would really consider using any other handset developed by Samsung in the future. The response given by the participants will be used in the development of the results and can be used in the analysis of the same problem (Wee, 2016). The interview can take less than two days since it involve the use of a one on one conversation with people on the streets and this does not require a lot of time and it is cheap unless the query is specifically to organizations which can be a bit expensive and time consuming due to booking appointments and other procedures.

 

 

On the bar above, the number of males who are unclear on how the device affected them is much larger than that of the females. This can be attributed to the fact that the device has great features which are mostly associated with the females such as the camera and the curvy stylish while males are mostly inclined to the internal parts for convenience at any particular time.

4.0 Findings

4.1 Theories on the possible causes of failure in note 7

There are many theories that have been developed over the failure of the note 7 and most of these theories are related to the system model of the mobile phone. One of the theories is the possibility of new manufacturing issues. A commission that deals with the safety of the product which worked closely with the United States in recalling the devices termed the failure to be caused by the batteries.  The batteries developed by the Samsung SDI were initially faulty (Morita et al., 2017). These batteries which were made became slightly too large than space available slot in the device. During installation, they would crimp the corner and this would lead to short circuiting eventually causing overheating and finally the possibility of fire. The company disintegrated the battery from the note 7 and opted to use an alternative from China Amperex technologies as a replacement to reduce the effects.

 However, the technology behind this batteries was also faulty and therefore another failure. These kinds of flaws are blamed to the previous technology which caused the second battery from Amperex Technologies to fail after recalling the devices. These new issues have however not been cleared though it seems like it may have crept back into the supply chain immediately after the company started the replacement for the new batteries. Samsung failed to deliver the actual cause or the solution to the problem but asked its partners to test and share data and it never shared the data from its part causing a reaction in the market since the partners never realized what they were to tell their customers (Morita et al., 2017).

Fast charging of the devices was also a possible cause of the note 7 failure. The tweaks that are made to the processors have been equipped to charge the devices faster than the normal rate. Fast charging could cause the explosions being experienced with the devices (Mi, 2017). Charging the batteries can make them a more volatile same case to when a person presses an engine significantly too hard causing an explosion.

The smart beautiful design of the phone could cause an explosion specifically the symmetrical curve of the device and this is a feature that the company has been bragging about since its development. The smart feature may have exerted some pressure in the battery packs causing a short circuit and eventually a fire outbreak (Mi, 2017). The isolating plates which separated the cathode and the anode were physically very close to the edges, therefore, this causes them to be prone to collapsing while under pressure.

Certain theories also indicate that the external pressure during manufacture could have been applied to the isolation plates. The plates have been placed towards the edges of the batteries and after the phone is sealed off, the battery packs could be subjected to the excessive pressure. The cost of covering this particular project is mostly a direct cost of transport, developing the hypothesis of the interview on paper and other minor costs. There are less or no equipment required in the interview since there are no questionnaires involved (Wee, 2016). The cost of developing the datasets in the project is significantly low since there are fewer data to be printed out and eventually used in determining the possible solution for the project.

Interview cost is low and significantly friendly since there are no charges involved by talking to people or being in the public resting places. Interview conducted is generally based on the market response of the device. On the question of how well the device can perform before the breakdown, the response was rather general with most interviewee terming the experience as excellent. Most of the people who responded to this question said that the note 7 experience was the best ever seen with its slim and curvy feature attracting more of their friends to buying the device. Compared to other handsets, the Note 7 had the capability of storing charge for more than two days even if the user was always using the device. This response was obtained from various individuals who use the mobile phones for other activities such as doing the online marketing which is the current market trend. Using the device was termed as a great but a short lived experience since the company called off all the note 7 devices even before some had the best part of it. Before the phones started exploding and at some point, some airlines denied people the permission to board the plane with the device, the device was even better than the current competitor, iPhone 7, according to an interviewee.

Looking at the device, the ratings are very high thus a record for this giant company since its birth but the note 7 has left a blank space that is full of questions on whether any other person will ever consider purchasing the handsets manufactured by Samsung (Park, 2013). The metallic part of the phone really excited many customers according to some respondents and this created a demand for the phone as this has always been the wish for the customers. However, the market strategy for the phone over the short period of time it was in the market was very high but regulated by the fact that some users had already started to site problems with the mobile device.

The risks involved in the research are the courage to get humiliated and trashed by some people during the interview. Loss of time is one of the major risks experienced from conducting the research since many of the people being questioned see it as a waste of time given that we do not represent a bigger player in making international reports. The time required in the formulation of this research paper is identified and already dedicated to making it a success. Time taken to conduct a single interview ranges between 10 to 15minutes and therefore many see this as a waste of time and resources. Also, some participants in the research have some poor communication skills making it difficult to question them but instead choose to change the topic to some irrelevant talks, therefore, wasting another variable time (Morita et al., 2017). For example, in a certain city where an interview was with a well-composed person, there were hardships trying to formulate a response from the person. Some respondents feel obligated to talk about other experiences rather than answering the question was asked and this is a variable waste of time, therefore, impacting on the scheduled time limit. Due to the fact that some mobile stores never gave a refund to their customers over the failed note 7 they had just purchased, some users became too harsh to a point of even chasing us away in the event.

Boredom is also a risk involved in the research. This is due to some embarrassment which is brought about by some materials such as the lack of enough and accurate response from the research. Some people cited the lack of confidence with the Samsung devices and with this ideology, there were risks of not even getting as much information as required to draw possible conclusions from the same.

The contract involved in this project is generally a contract between the Samsung Company and the other stakeholders in this case problem (Park, 2013). Having noted that the main reasons as to why the note 7 failed are due to the battery issues, it is a clear that the contractors, in this case, failed to honor their word and submit quality products. In this case, the same company that developed the faulty batteries is a subsidiary of Samsung meaning that the blame should entirely be focused on the same company. The faulty batteries developed new challenges for the company such as the loss of market and in due time there will be less customer loyalty to any handsets by Samsung.

5.0 Recommendation

Considering the company reputation, a team of experts has been selected to deal with the issue on the Note 7 batteries failure in ensuring that there are no such cases in future. According to the staff and the management, there are a number of safety team individuals who will be mandated to overseeing that whatever is developed will be of high quality and standards. Previously, Samsung had as usually performed a pre-test of the note 7 and the reason it did not fail then is not clear yet but the elected members will be there to ensure that quality and standard is observed at all times. Samsung has been the leading manufacturer of Smartphones and display units in the world. The kind of technology used by this giant company is top notch making it receive more customer loyalty to its brands. The current heating up debates on the failure of the note 7 could see the company fall or rise as this is an act that might trigger the customers to either like the products or prefer the competitor’s products.  To ensure that the company never experiences such issue in the future then it is really advisable that the team considers running a pilot project in determining the quality of the products at all times (Dissanayake & Amarasuriya, 2015). This will ensure that once the products are in the market, the customers will be comfortable using them as cases of failure will be eliminated completely. 

6.0 Conclusion

The failure of the note 7 might have come as a shock to the company since it had already done a pretest of the device. The possibility of the device failing once in the market caused a loss of more than $5 billion in the closing of the financial year 2016. With this kind of a loss, the company might have experienced a big blow in terms of remarketing and also attracting their loyal customers back since there is fear created in the minds of many people once they want to buy the handsets (Morita et al., 2017). But as a giant company with many other components in its business, it is simple enough for it to develop another type of phone even before the anger from the market sinks as a way of ensuring that customers are retained again.  

 

 

References

Dissanayake, D. M. R., & Amarasuriya, T. (2015). Role of brand identity in developing global brands: a literature based review on case comparison between apple iPhone vs Samsung smartphone brands.

Mi, X. (2017). Samsung Galaxy Note 7 battery explosion during charging?!. Laser.

Morita, H., Nakajima, K., & Tsuru, T. (2017). Product Architecture and Intra-Firm Coordination: Theory and Evidence.

Park, S. S. (2013). U.S. Patent No. D677,644. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Peppers, D., & Rogers, M. (2016). Managing Customer Experience and Relationships: A Strategic Framework. John Wiley & Sons.s

Singh, B. (2016). Factors Influencing Brand Loyalty For Samsung Mobile Users In Nepal (Master's thesis, Universitetet i Agder; University of Agder).

Wee, A. (2016). Samsung might ban Galaxy Note 7 for air travelers.

Wee, A. (2016). Samsung: Galaxy Note 7 sales/replacement suspended.