More than 100,000 people among owners of Samsung Electronics Co.’s Galaxy Note 7 smartphones in Korea have exchanged their devices since the company started offering replacements this week following a number of incidents of the Galaxy Note 7 phones catching fire due to a battery cell issue.

According to sources on Thursday, some 20,000 Note 7 owners returned their old phones to get replacements on September 19 when the exchange program kicked off Korea after the devices were recalled for the battery problem. Up to 40,000 devices were exchanged on each of the following two days. Only 18,000 Note 7 users, or 4.5 percent of the total, have so far canceled their phone activation in the country.

Samsung Electronics shipped 100,000 units of the new Galaxy Note 7 phones to carriers and retail stores on the first day of the exchange program to ensure there is no bottleneck. Many phone retailer shops set up a separate exchange booth to help Note 7 owners replace their devices. The company aims to complete its delivery of 400,000 new phones for replacements by Sunday and go back to normal sales from Sept. 28.

Mobile carriers say the replacements are smoothly progressing and Note 7 owners are recommended to exchange their devices as soon as possible for user safety.

The replacement program began in Canada on September 14 and in Singapore on 16. More than half of Note 7 users have so far exchanged their devices in Singapore, where the recall is expected to be completed this week. In the United States where the recall program started on September 21, about 500,000 units of the Note 7 smartphones, nearly half of the devices that are subject to a voluntary recall issued by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, have been already exchanged.

A Samsung official said the replacement program of the Galaxy Note 7 phones will start this week in all of 10 countries where the Galaxy Note 7 has been launched.

The world’s largest smartphone maker has been reeling under a heavy toll of the unprecedented massive recalls for the Galaxy Note 7 phones that were announced earlier this month on concerns over the device catching fire while charging due to a battery cell issue.

By Lee Kyung-jin

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]