It has been a rough year for Samsung, with all the fiasco generated by the Samsung Galaxy Note 7. The exploding units have generated so much buzz that even President Barack Obama has added fuel to the fire, figuratively of course.
President Obama has had the reputation of lightening the mood of his speeches through jokes from time to time. Some jokes are necessary to break the tension, while others are made because really, the situation just calls for it. The infamous Samsung Galaxy Note 7 became the latest subject of the president's attempt at humor. Now considered one of the biggest technological blunder in recent history, it was only a matter of time before President Obama caught up and used the unfortunate situation as a punchline.
The speech occurred at the Miami Dade College in Florida. The president was talking about the Affordable Care Act when he made the remark. He stated that the Obamacare is analogous to new smartphones, such as the Samsung Galaxy Note 7, being sold in the market. Political writer Dan Diamond of Politico uploaded a video of the event on Twitter:
This is a simultaneous "burn" on Samsung, Republicans and rotary phones. pic.twitter.com/HkHJeUfbL7
— Dan Diamond (@ddiamond) October 20, 2016
In the speech, President Obama remarked that "when one of these companies comes out with a new smartphone, and it has a few bugs, what do they do? They fix it, they upgrade. Unless it catches fire and then they just, then they pull it off the market." Most fans know that the President is pertaining to Samsung Galaxy Note 7.
"But you don't go back to using a rotary phone! You don't say, 'Well we're repealing smartphones. We're just gonna do the dial-up thing' That's not what you do," President Barack Obama added, still referring to the Samsung Galaxy Note 7. "The same basic principle applies here. We're not gonna go back to discriminating against Americans with pre-existing conditions."
The president did not directly mention Samsung Galaxy Note 7 or the company. However, it was clearly a quick witted remark referencing the brand. The punchline garnered laughs among the audience, who definitely got the allusion. Indeed, it was a lesson learned by Samsung, finding themselves in a situation where they metaphorically got burned by POTUS.
