Anchor: Just two months after the extravagant debut of Samsung Electronics' Galaxy Note 7 smartphone, the company faces potentially seeing the product disappear from the market completely. The tech giant announced it will temporarily suspend sales of the phablet as authorities in the U.S. and South Korea recommended consumers to stop using the phones due to unabating safety hazards.
Bae Joo-yon has more.
 
Report: Samsung Electronics announced on Tuesday that it will temporarily halt sales of its Galaxy Note 7 smartphone and stop issuing replacements while authorities investigate fresh cases of the phone overheating and igniting. Though the tech giant said the measures are temporary, resuming sales of the phones is not expected to be easy.
 
The Galaxy Note 7 made a splashy debut in New York on August second and began to be sold in South Korea and the U.S. from August 18th. The media and consumers were mesmerized by the phone’s elegant design and state of the art functions.
 
However, things started to go downhill when reports of the phone’s battery catching fire emerged in South Korea and the U.S.
 
The electronics giant temporarily suspended production of the model and announced it will recall the products on September second. On September 15th, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission formally recalled the Galaxy Note 7 smartphones in the U.S.
 
From late September, Samsung resumed sales of the phone equipped with new batteries after assessing that the batteries were to blame.
 
However, some of the replacement phones, too, were reported to have caught fire between the end of September and early this month, leading now to a suspension in global sales.

It is expected to be extremely difficult for Samsung to resume selling the Note 7 due to many hurdles it faces in order to gain safety approval by various authorities.
 
Due to the current circumstances, Samsung Electronics’ subcontractors believe that the decision to temporarily halt sales virtually signifies the permanent end of Galaxy Note 7 sales.
 
Attention is being drawn to how the tech giant, which is responsible for a significant amount of the nation’s export-driven economy, will overcome the latest blow.
Bae Joo-yon, KBS World Radio News.