Samsung'southward existent Milky way S8 challenge

Forget how Samsung'south upcoming smartphone looks or what's within. The biggest examination has little to do with the device itself.

Shh...listen. Tin can yous hear it? Ah, yes -- there it is: the familiar whooshing audio of incoherent rumors and forceful leakage (seriously, shouldn't nosotros get a doctor to wait at that?). Funny how that always seems to fill up the air this time of year, isn't information technology?

As usual, Samsung'southward latest Galaxy S phone is the primary field of study of the mid-winter whooshing. But this year, the real question about the company's upcoming flagship isn't how the device will look or what size/speed/girth [insert random piece of hardware here] information technology might possess.

Sure, those measurements might be what y'all're hearing about in the net's nearly echo-filled chambers. But for those of us focused on the large picture, they're not the most interesting or pressing piece of the puzzle.

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The real question to consider in 2017 is whether Samsung can manage to overcome its explosive new make problem -- you know, the whole "Holy hell, Harry, our phones might grab burn!" thing. And while the infamous flaming telephone was actually the Galaxy Annotation 7, not the Galaxy S7, that'due south precisely the indicate: For most normal people, these devices are all one and the same.

Information technology'due south something I've been thinking about ever since the Note 7 fire fiasco first, um, sparked headlines. And information technology doesn't accept much squinting to see the evidence.

The earliest signs of the miracle caught my eye back in October, when "Sabbatum Dark Alive" made a coincidental quip nigh Samsung's ill-fated phone. I couldn't help but notice that the show didn't refer to the device as the "Note 7" or even the "Note"; instead, information technology only called the phone the "Samsung Galaxy 7." And no one blinked an middle.

Suffice it to say, that got me listening. And sure enough, time and time again, late-night talk shows joked about the exploding Samsung phone without e'er specifying (or correctly specifying) the actual model. Forget the fact that Samsung's brand was becoming a besides-expert-to-pass-up punchline; the bigger result was the fact that much of the public didn't even know the difference betwixt Samsung'southward product lines and thus started to see them all as being fatally flawed.

The trend wasn't limited to comedy programs, either: Scan through the 7 zillion reports of airport announcements regarding the Annotation 7's flight ban, and you lot'll find information technology's pretty common to see the prohibited telephone existence referred to as the "Samsung Milky way seven" or even merely vaguely the "Samsung Galaxy." (I've also seen enough of reports of airport employees declaring the "Samsung Note S7" or fifty-fifty the "Milky way S7" equally the safe run a risk, neither of which bodes much better for Samsung.)

Now, could some of these reports exist the result of random people mishearing or misremembering what was actually said? Of course. Only that simply drives dwelling house the broader betoken: that, to many non-tech-obsessed consumers, a Galaxy phone is a Galaxy phone. A Samsung is a Samsung. And in Samsung's electric current PR nightmare, that makes an already impossible-seeming state of affairs even more than daunting.

However much Samsung's image might have suffered as a result of its Note vii meltdown and the public-sensation campaign that followed, the fact that the company'due south various production lines are duplicate in the optics of many is only going to make it worse -- because no matter how impressive the Galaxy S8 may announced, tons of typical phone-buyers will see it only as "that phone that caught fire a few months ago" (or maybe "a rushed-out new model of that phone," which might actually be worse). Factor in the inevitable jokes that'll fly through the air every time the latest Milky way comes upwardly for discussion, and Samsung's got a seriously volatile scenario on its hands.

At this point, the company's practically playing with fire. And if information technology manages to emerge with just minimal impairment from the burns -- well, that'll be quite the feat.

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Contributing Editor JR Raphael serves up tasty morsels nearly the human being side of technology. Hungry for more? Join him on Twitter or sign up for his weekly newsletter to get fresh tips and insight in your inbox every Friday.

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