PATTERN RECOGNITION
TOBY SHAPSHAK: Samsung hits back, big-time
After exploding phablets and corporate scandals, the S8 is the response the smartphone maker needed
The only people who have had a worse year than President Jacob Zuma are those at Samsung. It may be a giant chaebol (a Korean term for a large family-owned business conglomerate) that makes everything from smartphones to jet fuel and accounts for a fifth of South Korea’s exports, but it has had a torrid time. Last year its Note 7 phablet began exploding and was recalled, costing an estimated US$6bn in lost sales. This year the company’s heir-apparent was charged with corruption in a scandal in which South Korea’s president, Park Geun-hye, lost her job. Just before the annual cellphone extravaganza that is the Mobile World Congress in February, Samsung admitted what had gone wrong with the Note 7’s batteries. In something of a climb-down, it also gave up the launch of new devices in Barcelona. To all these crises and scandals, Samsung needed to come up with a good response, and it has done so with its flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S8. And last week, to rapturous applause at a glitt...
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