The Galaxy Note 7 debacle is six months of corporate history that Samsung would rather forget. Today, it’s taking a very expensive step towards closure.
Customers who bought the Galaxy Note 7 can get up to $425 towards the cost of a Galaxy Note 8 when they trade in their old device. That’s going to be painful for Samsung, given that over three million Note 7 devices were sold and then recalled.
Surveys have shown that Note 7 owners didn’t universally start hating Samsung after the Note 7 debacle, and many of them signaled an intent to buy the Note 8. The discount is going to be expensive for Samsung, especially given that a lot of Note 7 owners would’ve been likely to buy the Note 8 anyway for full retail price.
Details on exactly who is eligible haven’t been revealed yet, but you should be able to find out before the Note 8 preorders go live at midnight tonight. The only detail in Samsung’s press release is that you have to trade in an eligible device in order to get the upgrade, so it’s not an unconditional discount.
Hopefully, this should be the last time that Samsung ever has to write the words “Note 7” in a press release ever again. Analysts initially put the cost of Samsung’s recall as high as $17 billion, but much of that came from predicted damage to Samsung’s brand. Nearly every study conducted of Samsung Note 7 users showed that there wasn’t a significant backlash against the company, so provided Note 8 sales go well, we can officially conclude that Samsung dodged a bullet.
