The South Korean tech giant said on Friday the discontinuation of the Galaxy Note 7 smartphone would result in a loss of about $3 billion over the next two quarters.

Samsung already cut its third-quarter profit forecast by $2.3 billion on Wednesday.

The company announced earlier this week it would stop supplying the new model just two months after its launch. The decision came after two recalls of overheating and fire-prone smartphone developed into a fiasco, when the replacement phones also started to go up in flames.

Industry analysts have said the total costs could mount to between $10 billion and $20 billion when hard-to-calculate brand damage is taken into account.

The company said it hoped to expand sales of its Galaxy S7 and S7 edge phones to make up for the losses over the exploding Galaxy Note 7.

The Galaxy Note 7 was meant to compete with the new Apple iPhone. Critics say the company may have hurried to push the product out on the market before it was ready.

Samsung said it was also making changes to improve quality assurance.

cw/rc (AFP, Reuters)