[THE INVESTOR] Samsung Electronics has started shipping the first batch of 500,000 refurbished Galaxy Note 7 smartphones to US telecom carriers and retailers as its planned recall of the phone starts there on Sept. 21.

The recall comes six days after an order made by the US Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Samsung issued a recall of all 2.5 million Note phones -- including 1.5 inventories -- due to explosive batteries on Sept. 2. In the US alone, about 1 million devices are expected to be recalled. 




In Korea, where the recall starts this week, about 20,000 customers are believed to have their phones replaced with new ones on the first day.

Samsung plans to resume the phone sales early next month in the US and Europe as soon as the recall is completed.

The key market is the US, among others. According to market research firm Strategy Analytics, Samsung tops the US smartphone with a 32.7 percent market share in the second quarter, followed by Apple with a 24.5 percent.

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)