Things are not going well at all for Samsung with its first run of Galaxy Note 7 smartphones receiving fantastic reviews and then reality of battery issues that led to multiple fires resulted in the phone being recalled. That recall was lifted and replacement devices began going out to buyers of the defective devices and now reports are coming in that the replacement devices had the same battery issue. Samsung stopped sales of those replacement devices this week and reports indicate that Samsung has now gone one step further and officially killed the Galaxy Note 7 smartphone.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Samsung has stated that it will permanently discontinue the Galaxy Note 7. Word of the discontinuation of the device came from a filing Samsung made with South Korean regulators. This discontinuation comes after reports that the replacement Note 7 devices deemed safe had caught fire in some cases after overheating.

Samsung is quoted by the WSJ as saying, “Taking our customer’s safety as our highest priority, we have decided to halt sales and production of the Galaxy Note 7”

The discontinuation of the Note 7 will certainly have deep impact on Samsung and the firms profits for the latest quarter. Reports indicate that the Note 7 debacle has slashed about $17 billion from the overall worth of Samsung since the issues began. Analyst Daniel Kim from Macquarie estimates that Samsung could lose $2.8 billion from the last three months and if accurate that loss would kill all profit for the mobile division for Q4.

Analyst Mark Newman from Sanford C. Bernstein in Hong Kong is going so far as to call on Samsung to kill the Galaxy Note line altogether meaning no Note 8 to follow up the troubled Note 7. Newman says that the company needs to act fast to protect its brand and notes that the same battery issue with the replacement devices after Samsung said the original issue was due to a battery problem with a single supplier “begs serious questions” about the original excuse for the fires.

Samsung’s South African offices has not issued a statement on the news, but released an announcement on Wednesday, 5 October detailing the local launch of the device for 11 November 2016. 

“As pre-order results for the Galaxy Note 7 have far exceeded our estimates, its release date in some markets has been adjusted,” Samsung said in a press release issued a week ago, adding that it’s working on getting these issues sorted out as quickly as possible. That was all the company had to say on the matter, notably failing to point out just where else the phone would miss its scheduled launch date.

The good news here is that the delay doesn’t appear to have anything to do with production issues, merely the pace of production. Instead of having problems with difficult components like the curved glass display or the iris scanner, Samsung’s problem is just that its manufacturing plants can’t keep up. While that’s encouraging news for those who want the phone to sell well, Samsung needs to fix these problems quickly, otherwise it runs the risk of missing out sales as impatient consumers who need a new phone ultimately pick something else.

It would appear that the Galaxy Note 7 is worthy of such demand, as reviews overall have been pretty positive. Estimates say that Samsung could sell as many as 18 million Note 7 handsets by the end of the year, making it one of the best selling smartphones the company has ever released. To find out more about Samsung’s latest flagship, be sure to check out our Galaxy Note 7 review – once it releases, that is. 

If you’re thinking that Samsung has forgotten how to count, don’t worry: according to the South Korean firm, the decision to skip over the “Galaxy Note 6” name and go straight to “Note 7” is very much intentional.

The official company message is that it brings the names of its flagship devices in-line. After all, the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge launched earlier this year, and Samsung wouldn’t want confused would-be customers thinking that the Note was old hat.

However, with arch-rival Apple set to reveal what’s widely expected to be called the iPhone 7 later this year too, there’s no harm in some naming parity there either. It’s questionable whether buyers are so easily swayed as to think that a “Note 6” is automatically worse than an “iPhone 7” simply because one has a bigger number, but it’s presumably better safe than sorry.

If the rumor mill is correct, following the August 2 reveal the Galaxy Note 7 will go on sale as early as August 15, though that’s likely to be network-dependent.