Samsung Galaxy Note 7 Catching Fire
三星被迫停产Note7 谷歌或成最大赢家
TRANSCRIPT
Meanwhile, Samsung just can't get it right. (Q1) After reports that its Galaxy Note 7 was literally catching fire, the company moved to give customers replacement phones. (Q2) Now it turns out some of those phones are having similar problems. So, AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile will stop issuing the replacements. As NPR's Aarti Shahani reports, this is all really bad for Samsung.
AARTI SHAHANI, BYLINE:
Inside the world of consumer tech where people know products go buggy all the time, the Note 7 fail is an epic fail.
PATRICK MOORHEAD: This is actually an unprecedented situation.
SHAHANI: Patrick Moorhead is an analyst with Moor Insights, and he's seen a lot of recalls over the decades.
MOORHEAD: And I've never seen anything like this.
SHAHANI: (Q3) When the first round of Note 7 phones caught on fire, he thought Samsung was being proactive. Here in the U.S., phone carriers trusted the company to handle it. Samsung didn't wait for regulators to force its hand and issued a voluntary recall with a presumably easy fix—replace faulty batteries.
MOORHEAD: There were two battery manufacturers. One battery manufacturer was good. The other battery manufacturer was not good.
SHAHANI: So take the good, and toss out the bad. But...
MOORHEAD: (Q4) It doesn't appear as if that worked. Something else appears to have gone wrong here.
SHAHANI: Given that there are replacement phones catching on fire. So the plot thickens, and Moorhead says the really troubling part for Samsung's leaders is they may not know what the issue is.
MOORHEAD: And I think that what everybody must be asking is, wait a second; you know, Samsung, you do hundreds and millions of phones. Did you lose the recipe here?
SHAHANI: Samsung is being squishy on the details. The company says in a statement that, quote, "we are readjusting our supply," end quote, without specifying if its supply of batteries or another phone part. The company will not confirm reports that they've suspended all production of the Note 7. Analyst Carolina Milanesi thinks that might be a good idea and poses a rhetorical question.
CAROLINA MILANESI: Do they call it a day, and there's not going to be a Note 7 in the market, and they just, you know, do their holiday season with what they have?
SHAHANI: This is a key point. The Note 7 was not made to be a big moneymaker. It's made to build the brand, justify Samsung's high price tags across products. Trying to fix the Note 7 and failing to fix it gives the story a longer shelf life. (Q5) Milanesi says one player who really stands to benefit here, by the way, is not the phone maker Apple but Google.
MILANESI: Oh, it's perfect timing for Google.
SHAHANI: Which is coming out with its own phone called Pixel. (Q6) Milanesi says consumers who use Android probably won't switch over to Apple, which has a completely different operating system. But she could definitely see a Samsung buyer switching to Google.
MILANESI: (Q7) Obviously they didn't come out with a phone because they wanted to hurt Samsung, but indirectly they are hurting.
SHAHANI: (Q8) The Consumer Products Safety Commission is urging all Note 7 users to stop using their device and is investigating what went wrong. Aarti Shahani, NPR News.
VOCABULARY
1. proactive adj. 先发制人的；积极的；主动的。 Proactive actions are intended to cause changes, rather than just reacting to change. 例句：
· In order to survive the competition a company should be proactive not reactive. 要在竞争中生存下来，公司不应该消极应变，而应当先发制人。
· Industry must adopt a much more proactive approach to formulating environmental policy.
企业必须更积极主动地制定环境政策。
2. force sb.'s hand: to make sb. do sth. that they do not want to do or make them do it sooner than they had intended 迫使某人做某事（或提前行动）。例句：Don't try to force his hand; let him think things out for himself. 别强迫他, 让他自个儿想通问题。
3. toss out: 丢弃，扔掉。例句：Before we toss out mainstream discipline, it would be nice to have some evidence. 在我们准备抛掉主流观点之前，最好是先有些证据。
4. squishy adj. 松软的 Something that is squishy is soft and easy to squash.
5. call it a day: (informal) to decide or agree to stop doing sth. 结束一天的工作；到此为止；停止。例如：After forty years in politics I think it's time for me to call it a day (= to retire). 从政四十年，我想现在也该退休了。
6. come out: (PHRASAL VERB) （书或光盘）出版，发行。 When a new product such as a book or CD comes out, it becomes available to the public. 例句：
· The book comes out this week. 这本书本周出版。
· Christian Slater has a new movie coming out next month in which he plays a vigilante.克里斯汀·史莱特有一部新片下月发行，他在片中扮演一个治安维持会成员。
QUESTIONS
Listen to the news and mark the following statements T (true) or F (false). Correct any that are false.
1. Samsung gave customers replacement phones after its Galaxy Note 7 was literally catching fire in the USA.
2. AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile will stop issuing the replacements because some of those replacement phones are having similar problems.
3. When the first round of Note 7 phones caught on fire, Samsung issued a voluntary recall with a presumably easy fix, which is to replace faulty batteries.
4. It doesn't appear as if replacing the faulty batteries worked because there are replacement phones catching on fire.
5. According to Milanesi, the player who really stands to benefit here is not the phone maker Apple but Google.
6.Milanesi argues that consumers who use Android probably won't switch over to Apple because Apple has a completely different operating system.
7. Obviously Google came out its own phone called Pixel to hurt Samsung.
8. The Consumer Products Safety Commission of the USA is urging all Note 7 users to stop using their device and is investigating what went wrong.
KEY
QUESTION | T / F | |
1 | T | |
2 | T | |
3 | T | |
4 | T | |
5 | T | |
6 | T | |
7 | F | Obviously they didn't come out with a phone because they wanted to hurt Samsung, but indirectly they are hurting. |
8 | T |
|
来源：刘立军