By now, everyone should about the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 saga: it caught fire again and again until it was recalled and eventually, discontinued, dying faster than Pokemon GO.
Users would have the option to have a full refund or an exchange for the phone.
Now, with 93% of all Samsung Galaxy Note 7 returned, 7% of buyers are still holding on to the phone. While no one knows whether it’ll catch fire, Samsung is going to take a bold step to prevent that from happening: starting from 19 December 2016, a software update will be released, and this update will render the phone useless: it won’t be able to charge, and it can no longer function.
With about 1 million Samsung Galaxy Note 7 sold, it means 70,000 users will be affected.
This is done to force encourage people who are still using the phone to return their phone.
However, one thing to note is that this is only applicable to the US; whether it’ll come to Singapore is still unknown.
Samsung just issued a statement to confirm this. Here’s what they say.
Consumer safety remains our highest priority and we’ve had overwhelming participation in the U.S. Note7 Refund and Exchange Program so far, with more than 93 percent of all recalled Galaxy Note7 devices returned.
To further increase participation, a software update will be released starting on December 19th and will be distributed within 30 days. This software update will prevent U.S. Galaxy Note7 devices from charging and will eliminate their ability to work as mobile devices. Together with our carrier partners, we will be notifying consumers through multiple touchpoints to encourage any remaining Galaxy Note7 owners to participate in the program and to take advantage of the financial incentives available.
Anyone who has not yet returned their device should immediately power it down and contact their carrier to obtain a refund or exchange, or visit our website at Samsung.com/us/note7recall for more information.
Okay, while this might seem like a good idea, here’s one thing that I’ve just learned: an update can effectively make a phone unusable. What if some bad guys decided to send an update to all our phones that disable them all?
I’m pretty sure that’ll be even worse than the Singtel outage.
Featured Image: oatawa / Shutterstock.com
This article was first published on goodyfeed.com
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