It's been reported that Samsung has been working on an over-the-air (OTA) update for their flagship phone Galaxy Note 7.
This new update will permanently limit the battery's capacity up to only 60 percent. In other words, the phone will cease to charge upon reaching the 60 percent mark of the battery capacity.
Seemingly, this incoming change will help keep the energy density of the battery at a safe level, hence preventing short-circuit phenomena that Samsung pointed out as the culprit for the Note 7 explosions.
Associated Press reported that Samsung placed an advertisement in one of South Korea's major publishing company, Seoul Shinmun, to announce its plan.
At the time of this article, the company's closely working together with Korean carriers to prepare recalled and new Galaxy Note 7 phones for the update, which will be rolling out this Sep. 20.
Another local major newspaper, Korea Times, disclosed that this update will urge current Note 7 owners to have their units recalled and replaced. Samsung stated, "It is a measure to put consumer safety first but we apologize for causing inconvenience."
Despite the persuasion of the company, there's still a lot of owners who opted not to have their phones recalled starting Sep. 19.
Samsung's OTA update is aimed at consumers who opt not to return their phones for a replacement. Representatives from Samsung said that the new devices will not have this kind of battery limitation because they've changed the batteries to safer ones.
Delving deeper, this stop-gap method nominally limits the battery capacity of the Galaxy Note 7 to only 2,100 mAh which is ideally a serviceable amount for moderate usage. With this being said, it's evident that Samsung is simply trying to prevent additional overheating incidents wherein 70 have already been recorded and reported in the USA alone. This measure came after a number of airline companies all over the world issued bans on bringing and using the Note 7 inside the plane.
Samsung did deny its decision, previously, to suspend sales of the Note 7 phones with defective batteries. But the bad publicity has been taking a toll on their reputation plus the launch of Apple's iPhone 7 & 7 Plus has got investors worried.
Though it should be emphasized that the long-term damage would be the loss of confidence from its solid market base.
It's revealed that Samsung will be issuing replacements of the Note 7 starting Oct. 1.
