At last, Samsung announced on Tuesday that it was recalling all of the more than 190,000 Galaxy Note 7 smartphones sold in the Chinese mainland, and was bringing a total halt to the production of the device because of instances of the battery exploding.

It is yet to be seen whether the overdue move will help the South Korean electronics company recover its damaged reputation among Chinese consumers and regain its position in the smartphone market. The company's stock price plummeted sharply after its announcement, the biggest drop in a single day since the 2008 global financial crisis.

Samsung provoked anger among Chinese consumers after it excluded China from its international recall of the phones, claiming that models sold in the Chinese market used batteries from a different supplier. It even said that it was being framed by its Chinese competitor Huawei. However, several subsequent instances of its phones catching fire further dragged Samsung into the vortex of public controversy.

From the very beginning of the scandal, Samsung has responded badly, only proving that any attempt by a company to cover up something that could be a threat to people's safety is bound to have adverse consequences.

Once a company is aware of such an issue, it should do everything it can to stop people using the product. It should not try to cover up the problem, but instead issue a sincere apology and a timely recall of the faulty items. Any failure to face up to the problem or make timely remedial measures may cause irretrievable damage to its image.

Samsung's attitude and acts following the battery crisis have caused users to deeply doubt its phone technology and also its integrity. Its battery crisis will come to an end as Samsung has now announced a sweeping recall.

However, the incident should serve as a profound reminder to all enterprises that they should be honest with consumers in the case of any quality problem.