Samsung Electronics on Friday offered alternative phones to its India customers who had pre-ordered its flagship Galaxy Note 7 devices, in a bid to appease loyal clients in one of its largest smartphone markets.
Samsung Electronics offered alternative phones to its India customers who had pre-ordered its flagship Galaxy Note 7 devices, in a bid to appease loyal clients in one of its largest smartphone markets.
The world’s largest phone maker has been hit by an avalanche of negative publicity, after being forced to recall millions of the fire-prone Note 7 devices and later scrap the high-end phone altogether.
India is one of the world’s largest and fastest growing smartphone markets and a critical one for Samsung as it is the No. 1 player in the nation with a roughly 25 percent market share.
The company initially apologised to customers for the delay in the Note 7, and in a release late on Friday it said for those who had pre-booked devices, in lieu of the Note 7 it would offer customers either its Galaxy S7, or S7 Edge devices
It also offered affected clients a free set of its virtual reality headsets, a free pair of wireless headphones, a voucher worth about USD 50, along with a free one-time screen replacement in case of any damage to the new smartphone within a year.
However Samsung said that it expected to take a hit to its operating profit of about USD 3 billion over the next two quarters due to the discontinuation of the Galaxy Note 7.
By Baishakhi Dutta
