Samsung blames Galaxy Note 7 fires on faulty batteries

SEOUL — The world's biggest smartphone maker Samsung blamed faulty batteries on Monday for the fires that led to the recall of its flagship Galaxy Note 7 device.

Internal and independent investigations "concluded that batteries were found to be the cause of the Note 7 incidents", the South Korean company said in a statement.

The giant conglomerate was forced to discontinue the device —originally intended to compete with Apple's iPhone — after a chaotic recall that saw replacement phones also catching fire.

The debacle cost the company billions in lost profit and reputational damage.

Samsung acknowledged Monday that it provided the specifications for the batteries, adding: "We are taking responsibility for our failure to ultimately identify and verify the issues arising out of battery design and manufacturing.”

"We have taken several corrective actions to ensure this never happens again."

Samsung announced a recall of 2.5 million units of the oversized Galaxy Note 7 in September 2016 after several devices exploded or caught fire.

When replacement phones also started to combust, the company eventually decided to kill off the Note 7 for good.

Monday's English-language Samsung statement referred only to "incidents" but in Korean it spoke of "damage by fire".