Samsung sounds right Note 8 in wary launch of latest wares

Singapore

WHEN is it not enough for a mobile phone to be good? In the case of Samsung's Galaxy Note 8, it's when its predecessor caught fire and exploded, and when it's unveiled mere weeks before Apple is expected to launch the next iPhone.

This isn't fair to the Note 8, which was launched internationally on Wednesday, and will go on sale here on Sept 15 for S$1,398 without a contract. It's just as well then that phones don't have feelings. Samsung's customers, however, do.

More to the point, so do shareholders and industry pundits, who will likely use the Note 8's success or failure as a barometer to gauge Samsung's longer term appeal as a brand, and its skill at brand recovery.

The Galaxy Note 7 was launched in August 2016 amid fanfare - and just before Apple's iPhone 7 - only to be recalled twice due to battery faults that caused fiery explosions, then discontinued altogethe…