Samsung's sudden PR crisis stemmed from the China state-run TV broadcaster CCTV-2's half-hour report diving into Samsung's faults in its repair policy and warranty. Pointing out a critical, albeit old, flaw in Samsung's firmware, CCTV's report exposed a pesky bug capable of damaging Samsung's memory chip, that in some instances crashes the phone.
Despite a patch having been released last year that should have fixed the issue, the CCTV report highlighted Chinese smartphone owners who continue to be plagued by the firmware bug. The repair, until today, which CCTV claimed wasn't covered under Samsung's warranty, is said to cost afflicted owners between 780 yuan (US$128) and 2000 yuan (US$328.90). Samsung shot back saying that if the issue presented itself prior to the standard one-year warranty, the fix was covered.
In an effort to calm the storm, Samsung is offering a full refund for previous repairs, while future fixes will come at no additional cost. As a bonus, Samsung announced an extended one-year warranty for all Galaxy S3 and Note 2 models purchased prior to November 30, 2012.
It's surprising to see Samsung relent to China's media so quickly, but the company's willingness to acquiesce (regardless of how big of an issue the problem really was) underscores Samsung's deference to the Chinese market. After all, Samsung is dominating in the largest smartphone market in the world where it held 18.3 percent market share in Q2 2013 (before the debut of the Apple iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C), according to IDC.
[h=5]About the author[/h]Francis Bea is a technology writer who has written about social media, mobile startups, and the latest tech trends in China for Digital Trends and TheNextWeb. When Francis isn't writing about tech, you'll find him musing about the mobile ad industry by day for AppFlood, a mobile advertising network, and tinkering with startup ideas by night. Francis Bea is a member of CNET Asia regional blogger network and is not an employee of CNET Asia.
Francis Bea, Regional blogger
