Samsung to release results of Galaxy Note 7 probe this week

SEOUL, Jan. 22 (Yonhap) -- Samsung Electronics Co., the world's largest manufacturer of smartphones, is set to announce the results of its investigation this week into what caused the Galaxy Note 7 smartphones to overheat and catch fire, company officials said Sunday.

Details of the results due Monday were not known.

However, a failure in the inspection and measurement of the batteries used in the Note 7 is believed to have caused the problem, despite the Note 7's ambitious design with advanced features, such as an iris scanner and curved display.

Samsung decided to discontinue the Note 7 in October last year after recalling millions of the devices worldwide over safety concerns.

Koh Dong-jin, head of Samsung's smartphone business division, will announce the results of its probe into the Note 7, a company official said.

Samsung Electronics suffered a 30 percent plunge in its third-quarter operating profit, mainly hit by the discontinuation of the Galaxy Note 7.

Its operating profit for the July-September quarter stood at 5.2 trillion won (US$4.6 billion), compared with a profit of 7.3 trillion won a year ago.

Compared with a quarter earlier, Samsung's operating profit plunged 36.1 percent.

But its fourth-quarter bottom line is expected to have improved sharply on higher chip prices.

Samsung Electronics earlier estimated that its fourth-quarter operating profit last year may have jumped about 50 percent on-year, beating market expectations as strong sales of chips and displays appeared to help offset losses from the production halt of the phablet.

Operating profit is estimated at 9.2 trillion won in the October-December period last year, up 49.84 percent from the same quarter of 2015.

Samsung Electronics is set to report its finalized tally of the fourth-quarter earnings Tuesday.

sam@yna.co.kr
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