Samsung will reduce Galaxy Note 7’s battery capacity via automatic update

Samsung takes seriously the lever on the Galaxy Note 7 customers back. The company issued a recall, worked with carriers, and made several announcements concerning the device. Now they will try something new - limit the ability of the battery to 60% charge.

For now, the update over the air will be limited to South Korea, where Samsung has released a cover page ad in the Seoul Shinmun, a newspaper in South Korea. The announcement indicates that the devices are limited to only 60% load, especially lead users to exchange your hardware. It is a measure of first put consumer safety, but "we apologize for causing inconvenience," according to the AP.

Samsung is in talks with mobile operators around the world to discuss push similar changes to other devices. The issue has highlighted one of the problems with the smart phones in general. Apple or Microsoft, the company responsible for the operating system also has the ability to drive change for her. The two developers of the operating system have taken steps in recent years to ensure that all users are protected by security updates and bug fixes if they want to or not. (Policies with Microsoft Windows 10 were controversial to push the changes are not security and a general lack of communication around patches - security updates, in themselves are not controversial). The Android ecosystem is much more fragmented and no company responsible for pushing updates to consumers.

It is unclear whether Samsung did this simply change to reduce the risk of overheating or because it leads consumers in stores. It is likely a mixture of both. While the company initially minimized the risk and toldThe Wall Street Journal that only a handful of devices is affected, we can not remember the last time that any company has gone to these lengths to remember devices. Sony battery recall a few years ago when the technology of the lithium-ion battery is newer and less tested was significant. However, Samsung has released all the stops to drive consumers to stores to replace your hardware.

Or this problem is bigger than the company originally thought or decided to be very proactive with your fingers. In the first case, the company has to say something concrete about it - treat this as a measure to save face will not work if the high-level failures still occur. In the latter case, then good for Samsung. Hitting the battery life is quite likely to bring people into the stores, and it is expected that the company can roll the solution to most of South Korea.