三星因手機缺陷向中國消費者道歉

Samsung issued an apology to Chinese consumers on Wednesday after China's state-run media criticized the Korean electronics giant for selling handsets with allegedly faulty memory chips.

The company offered to provide free repairs and extended warranties on seven models after a broadcast on the influential China Central Televisionon Tuesday reported how Samsung handsets, including the Galaxy S andGalaxy Noteseries, crash several times a day due to the memory chips. The report said the issue could be resolved with a $100 chip upgrade that was not covered under current warranties.

In a statementposted to Samsung's China Web site, the electronics giant apologized for the inconvenience, which it blamed on "management problems." It also pledged to repair affected devices, refunds on previously-repaired devices, and replacement handsets in some cases.

Samsung is not the first tech coming to come under CCTV scrutiny for its warranty practices. In April, Apple CEO Tim Cook issued an apologyover its warranty policies in China and promised improved services. The initial report claimed Apple repaired only broken or otherwise faulty parts within its products for customers in China, versus providing new replacements in other countries.

Cook's apology came during Apple's continuing efforts to land an iPhone distribution dealwith the world's largest mobile carrier. Support from China Mobile, which has about 745 million customers, would open up a vast number of new customers for Apple.

Meanwhile, Samsung hopes its apology goes a long way toward helping it maintain its lead position in China's smartphone market. The company sold 30 million devices in the country last year for a 17.7 percent market share, outpacing the 11 percent share commanded by No. 3 Apple.據美國科技網站CNET報道，在中國官方媒體公開批評韓國電子產品巨頭向中國銷售內存芯片存在問題的手機後，10月30日週三，三星向中國消費者道歉。

在中國最具影響力的中央電視臺29日報道了包括型號爲Galaxy S 和Galaxy Note系列的三星手機因內存芯片問題導致一天內多次死機之後，三星公司提出對七款機型提供免費維修服務並延長其保修期。該報道指出，能夠解決這些問題的價值100美元的升級芯片並不包含在當前的保修中。

在三星中國網站上的一份聲明中，這家電子產品巨頭爲大家造成的不便給予道歉，並將之歸咎於“管理問題”。它同時保證對受到影響的設備進行維修，退回之前的維修費用，並會在一些情況下更換手機。

三星並不是第一個因保修問題而受到中央電視臺監督的企業。今年四月，蘋果首席執行官蒂姆•庫克因蘋果公司的保修政策不合理而做出道歉並承諾改善服務。之前的報道稱，在中國蘋果公司只爲客戶維修有損壞或有其他問題的手機零件，而在其他國家卻對其提供更換手機服務。

庫克做出道歉之時，是蘋果公司繼續努力與世界上最大的移動運營商達成iPhone銷售協議之時。因爲有了中國手機市場74.5億消費者的支持，這將爲蘋果公司開發一大批新的消費者。

同時，三星希望通過它的道歉能有助於維持其在中國智能手機市場的主導地位。2012年，三星在中國銷售了3000萬臺設備，市場佔有率達到17.7%，大大超過了由第三位的蘋果所持有的11%市場佔有率。