Samsung halts sales of Galaxy Note 7 over battery woes

NEW YORK (AA) – Samsung on Monday announced it would stop selling its flagship Galaxy Note 7, after realizing that a botched replacement service failed to address the issue of fiery batteries.

"Because consumers’ safety remains our top priority, Samsung will ask all carrier and retail partners globally to stop sales and exchanges of the Galaxy Note7 while the investigation is taking place," the company said in a statement.

"Consumers with either an original Galaxy Note 7 or replacement Galaxy Note 7 device should power down and stop using the device," it said, basically rendering an expensive smartphone unusable.

Last week, a Note 7 caught fire aboard a Southwest Airlines plane, forcing an evacuation. According to one media report, the phone was a replacement unit after Samsung, the world's largest phone manufacturer, issued a recall for 2.5 million phones in late September, only a month after its launch.

Samsung shares opened nearly 5 percent lower Tuesday on the South Korean market, while shares of its main rival, Apple, shares were at their highest level in the U.S. in 10 months due to market expectations that it would benefit from Samsung's problems.