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The Samsung Galaxy S III owner who claimed his new smartphone exploded in his car has backed away from his statement, after a third-party investigation found the cause of the heat-related damage to be an external energy source.
The kids friend put the smartphone in a microwave oven.
I would like to retract my original statement, wrote the Samsung owner, a university student in Ireland using the handle dillo2k10 on the forum Boards.ie. The damage to the phone was caused by another person, although they were attempting to recover the phone from water this later caused the damage shown on the phone.
He added, It occurred due to a large amount of external energy and there was no fault with the phone. This was not a deliberate act but a stupid mistake.
Apparently faced with a soggy, and then scorched, phone, the lad made up a tale, first posting to the forum the day before the Galaxy S III was to make its U.S. debut on the T-Mobile and Sprint networks. (The phone has been so popular worldwide, and supply so low, Sprint was forced to delay the phones release by 10 days.)
I was driving along ¦ when suddenly a white flame, sparks a bang came out of the phone, he wrote in the June 20 post. Building up some indignation he added, That could have burned the side of my face or through my pocket and my leg, or set fire to my bed. Its very dangerous.
Samsung, rightly, hurried to pay dillo2k10 a visit.
The head of customer services came out to see me and gave me a replacement phone, he wrote in an update. Even said he would send me out some free stuff.
FI-UK Fire Investigations, the third party hired by Samsung to investigate the allegation, wrote in a report posted to the Samsung Tomorrow site:
“In the experience of Fire Investigations (UK) LLP, the antenna is a passive component and should not connect with the power source. It is, however, a suitable conductor for microwave energy and our tests clearly demonstrated this.The device did not cause this fire based on the information available to FI-UK and the subsequent tests carried out by FI-UK.“
Samsung has contracts to sell the Galaxy S III with five U.S. carriers. Following T-Mobile, Sprint and AT&T, Verizon Wireless was poised to be the next to go live, announcing July 3 that it will begin selling the phone starting July 10. However, the carriers Website now says the phone will begin shipping July 19.
Samsung has said that it is making the phones as fast as it can, but limited supplies caused at least one financial services firm to lower its earnings forecast for Samsungs second quarter and increase the forecast for its third. And indeed, on July 6, Samsungs stock shares fell, after the company announced record quarterly earnings but sales that fell below expectations.
JK Shin, head of Samsungs mobile division, told the press that sales of Galaxy S III smartphones would likely exceed 10 million units in July, Reuters reported June 25. According to the report, Shin added, Weve sent executives and staff to almost all our (component) suppliers to ensure a smooth offering and hopefully things will get better from next week.
With supplies still lagging, analysts have estimated that Samsung instead sold 6 million to 7 million of the smartphones during its second quarter.
Follow Michelle Maisto on Twitter.