Samasung confirmed that batteries were found to be the cause of the Galaxy Note 7 fires.
The world's biggest smartphone maker Samsung blamed faulty batteries on Monday for the fires that led to the recall of its flagship Galaxy Note 7 device since September last year. Internal and independent investigations "concluded that batteries were found to be the cause of the Note 7 incidents", the South Korean company said in a statement. The giant conglomerate was forced to discontinue the device -- originally intended to compete with Apple's iPhone -- after a chaotic recall that saw replacement phones also catching fire.
Seven-hundred researchers and engineers tested more than 200,000 devices and more than 30,000 batteries and replicated what happened with the Note 7 phones, the world's biggest smartphone maker said in a statement.
The debacle cost the company billions in lost profit and reputational damage. While Samsung Electronics' mobile division is expected to have bounced back from the Note 7 failure during the fourth quarter, investors remained cautious about the outlook due to uncertainty about how the Note 7 fires would affect sales of future flagship devices.
Samsung acknowledged today that it provided the specifications for the batteries, adding: "We are taking responsibility for our failure to ultimately identify and verify the issues arising out of battery design and manufacturing.
"We have taken several corrective actions to ensure this never happens again."
A highly technical explanation of the various problems boiled down to the relatively large batteries not fitting well into the phones, and not enough insulating material inside. US companies UL and Exponent examined the batteries and the German company TUV Rheinland analyzed the supply chain as part of the latest investigation, Samsung said. Though it faulted batteries from its suppliers, the company said it was "taking responsibility for our failure to ultimately identify and verify the issues arising out of the battery design and manufacturing process."
The company has recalled 3.06 million Note 7 phones. The recalls began in September after reports the phones were overheating and catching fire. Samsung blamed a flaw in lithium batteries from one of its two suppliers.
When replacement phones also started to catch fire, the company eventually decided to kill off the Note 7 for good.
Monday's English-language Samsung statement referred only to "incidents" but in Korean it spoke of "damage by fire".
(With inputs from agencies)