Samsung is making some noise at this year's Mobile World Congress but not for the right reasons. The tech giant has faced a couple of controversies in the event including a Greenpeace protester and accusations of fake news.
During Samsung's presentation at the 2017 MWC, a protester climbed the stage and showed a sign calling for the Korean conglomerate to make sure to recycle the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 properly. In other news, Samsung published a press release on Feb. 27 via the Samsung Newsroom page which has triggered a bit of controversy.
The Greenpeace protester who got up the stage while the Chief Marketing Officer of Samsung Electronics Europe, David Lowes, was addressing the crowd, was carrying a banner showing the recycle symbol along with the company's name, "#GalaxyNote7", and Greenpeace's name beneath the symbol. Lowes calmly made his way to the protester and told him that he has made his point before requesting him to get off the stage. Outside, a group of protesters also from Greenpeace attempted to unfurl a huge banner with the same contents as the first one but was stopped by a Samsung representative.
Samsung has indicated that it plans to refurbish the Galaxy Note 7 with smaller batteries and resell them to get back even a portion of their $5 billion loss due to the defective handset. The company also indicated that it is working with regulatory bodies and carrier partners to dispose of the devices in a responsible manner.
Tech Crunch noticed one important error in Samsung's press release which declared that the Galaxy S7 edge was named the best smartphone at the Mobile World Congress 2017. To be clear, the said smartphone was indeed the winner of the Best Smartphone award but not at this year's MWC event. It won the award in 2016. The award is given out by GSMA, the group behind the MWC. They also give out awards in a ceremony held every year. The nominees for the category this year is the iPhone 7 plus, Huawei P9, the Moto Z and the Pixel XL, and the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge.
Some people who commented on the Tech Crunch article pointed out that Samsung did not announce its 2016 flagship smartphone as the winner this year but only as the best smartphone at the current MWC. A number of other websites that have picked up the press release have already reported the handset as the 2017 winner. Samsung has not commented as of this writing.
