It's safe to say that the Galaxy Note 7 is dead. What consumers want to know now is how Samsung will recover from that fiasco. Is the Galaxy Note 8 the solution?

There's no question that Samsung's Note series is one of the company's greatest innovation. Unfortunately, the Galaxy Note 7's baffling and dangerous battery defect has done tremendous damage to the company. It might have even ended the Note's remarkable run. It has certainly ruined the line as consumers will forever associate the device with exploding batteries.

There had been reports that the South Korean giant has already started work on two versions of the Galaxy S8 — a regular model and a phablet. According to reports, the phablet will have a 4K display and a dual rear camera, very much like the iPhone 7 Plus.

However, things have undoubtedly changed now as reports have surfaced that Samsung might forego the Galaxy Note in 2017. One Samsung insider has even reportedly said that the company is thinking of dropping the entire Note brand. Kim Duk-jin of the Korea-Insight Institute even told The Korea Herald that the company is "recommended to drop the Note brand as consumers may still find it dangerous even when the new Note 8 comes out."

That certainly is sad news for fans of the device, but it's also inevitable as consumer trust for the brand appears to have been irrevocably destroyed. One survey found that even in South Korea, the Galaxy Note 7 is now viewed in a negative light, with consumers' positive responses dropping to 42%. That's a big drop from the 62% approval the device had when it first came out.

While Samsung might say goodbye to the Note brand, the company will reportedly hold on to the Galaxy name. Can the company still recover from the Note 7 disaster? Probably, but only if Samsung can find the cause of the explosions and share with its consumers their findings.