By Se Young Lee / Reuters
Samsung announced in early September the withdrawal of 2.6 million its flagship smartphone after numerous allegations that the phone had burned.
On Tuesday, the company finally decided to dismiss definitively the device, which costs $ 882, which could be one of the costliest failures linked to the safety of a product of the history of technology.
"We decided to stop production and sales of the Galaxy Note 7 to consider first and foremost the safety of our consumers," Samsung said in a statement the South Korean stock market regulator.
The world's largest maker of smartphones said it had asked all operators to stop global sales Note 7 and replacing devices while working with regulators to investigate the problem. The company offers change your phone for other products or refund the money.
Samsung's decision to withdraw Note 7 stores for the second time in less than two months not only generates new doubts about the quality control of the company, it could generate a huge financial and reputational cost.
Analysts estimate that the final end of sales Samsung Note 7 would cost up to 17,000 million dollars and sully the image of your other phones in the minds of consumers and operators.
On Tuesday, Samsung lost nearly 20,000 billion in market capitalization. Its shares closed down eight percent, the biggest intraday drop since 2008.
The device launched in August was designed to compete against Apple's latest iPhone for supremacy in the market for high-end mobile. Well received by critics, his first problem was a huge demand exceeded supply devices.
But a few days of launch, images of charred Note 7 devices began appearing on social networks, in the first sign that something malfunctioned.
The company did not comment immediately on whether he had identified the source of fire in replacement devices, although responsible in Seoul said they were studying several possibilities, including batteries.