It has definitely not been the best of weeks for Samsung as news came out that their new flagship phone that had solidified Samsung as the best smartphone manufacturer with the best smartphone on sale, the Note 7, is being recalled in their millions because of a faulty battery which is causing the device to overheat and explode.

The Samsung Note 7 was released with the utmost of excitement for being the best smartphone to date. It had features that only Apple could dream of, was completely waterproof, had an AMO-LED screen that was to die for and, to top it off, one of the best styluses ever on a portable device: the S Pen.

However, since the launch, there have been reports that Samsung Note 7 devices have miraculously being exploding and catching on fire, destroying the device and causing an extremely hazardous and dangerous risk for those with Note 7s who have not had their phones self-ignite.

The reason why the Note 7 is exploding is due to the battery component inside the smartphone, where 65% of the batteries of the Note 7 were made by Samsung SDI and the rest by Amperex Technology. Batteries work by creating a charge due to positive and negative electrodes. With the batteries in the Samsung Note 7, these positive and negative electrodes were accidentally colliding together, causing extreme amounts of heat to be released by this collision, resulting in the batteries melting down and self-exploding.

Since the news of dangerous batteries in Samsung Note 7s, already there has been over 2.5 million devices recalled.

What does this mean for Samsung?

Everything was going great for Samsung. They had released, what the press stated to be, the best smartphone to date with features not even the next iPhone would have. However, the un-imaginable has happened: a mass recall for the product being dangerous. For this reason, the whole reputation of the Note 7 has pretty much fallen over night, which both will not help Samsung as a brand and halt future sales of such a high profile smartphone.

However, what really does not help Samsung is that this has come at the worst time possible for Samsung. Apple are soon to release their new iPhone 7 in September and their main rival, Samsung and the Note 7, has completely disappeared from their radar. For all those that were about to buy a Note 7, you can expect their money to be put into a more reliable and, potentially better smartphone: the iPhone 7. What more, smartphones are released at the prime time to get the most publicity before Christmas – the time of year where the majority of companies make the most amount of money for the whole entire year. Yes, Samsung are getting publicity. But, it really is not good publicity so this quality problem with the Note 7 might even affect the sales of company coming into the holiday season too.

It is a shame since Samsung can be seen to be the best competitor to actually compete side by side with Apple and this year seemed to be the closest Samsung has ever been to competing with Apple. Hopefully Samsung will learn from their mistakes and come out stronger still.