Samsung Halts Shipments Of Galaxy Note7 In South Korea After Reports Of Fires

Samsung Electronics has stopped shipping the Galaxy Note7, a large-screened smartphone aimed at professional productivity tasks, to carriers in South Korea in order to perform quality-control testing.

The move comes less than two weeks after the device went on sale in the U.S., and followed several reports that Galaxy Note7 devices had caught fire while charging their batteries.

South Korea-based Samsung Electronics did not disclose whether the halted shipments will affect other countries.

[Related: Samsung Unveils Galaxy Note7, A Productivity-Focused Device With Iris Scanning Authentication]

"In response to questions on Galaxy Note7, we are conducting a thorough inspection," Samsung said in a statement to CRN. "We will share the findings as soon as possible. Samsung is fully committed to providing the highest quality products to our consumers."

Samsung’s shares dropped on Thursday, but ’there’s no clear identified cause for the accidents yet,’ Dongbu Securities analyst S.R. Kwon told the Wall Street Journal -- adding that it's also unclear whether Samsung SDI manufactured the batteries in question. Samsung SDI is a sister company to Samsung Electronics and is one of the suppliers for batteries used in the Galaxy Note7.

At Troy Mobility, a solution provider based in Peabody, Mass., Chief Customer Officer Paul Troisi said he doesn’t expect Samsung will suffer long-term consequences from the reports.

’I think it’s a blip,’ said Troisi, whose firm specializes in enterprise mobility solutions, including for Samsung devices. ’It’s still a relatively new device — it hasn’t truly been globally rolled out yet. And the S7 and S7 Edge have received outstanding marks across the board from a lot of different third-party vendors … I don’t think [the Note7 issue] is going to affect their market share all that much.’

If it turns out that Samsung didn’t do enough quality assurance work upfront for the Note7, Troisi said he believes Samsung’s fierce competition with smartphone makers, including Apple, would be to blame. ’Any time you’ve got a race that’s moving this fast, you’re bound to trip over your shoelaces eventually,’ he said.

The 5.7-inch Galaxy Note7 includes iris scanning as an option for user authentication and a digital pen for writing on the device -- features aimed at drawing interest for use in business.

Other security options on the Note7 include a feature called Secure Folder, which lets users protect sensitive information with an additional layer of authentication.

The Note7's debut had followed Samsung’s biggest quarterly profits in two years during the second quarter, driven by sales of the Galaxy S7 smartphone.