[Note 7 Questions & Answers] BarryH_GEG:
Yes. Some thoughts.

Samsung's contracted and/or produced "x" number of components for the run of the Note7. They also have factory lines and the people that go with them dedicated to production. To replace 1.5M phones they had to produce another 1.5M. So if anything, to meet their sales goals, they are behind in production. The only reason not to produce them would be if they were going to kill them or didn't have faith in their diagnoses of the problem and/or the solution. (see below).

A number of people have brought up that a design defect with the phone itself is behind the battery problems. Two things: 1) Samsung sells and has sold more smartphones than anyone else. They know how to design and build phones. Historically their worst technical sins have been less than stellar Wi-Fi and GPS based on component proximity or antenna placement. It's hard to believe they'd suddenly backslide and botch the design of an important flagship so badly. Especially as many have complained here previously the Note7 is really a S7 with S Pen rather than something groundbreaking.

Government agencies from numerous countries have been involved in this. Once Samsung self-identified the battery issue they then owed each of those countries valid explanations on why it happened and, before sales began/begin again, why the "safe" Note7's are in fact safe. You'd have to assume with their citizens safety in their hands and having access to data we and the media never will those countries involved were satisfied with the answers to both those questions.

Carriers giving people with Note7's the option to move to other phones isn't an indictment of the Note7 as much as it is good business. Wireless carriers make a pittance on h/w and all their money on voice and data. Why risk pissing off any of your customers, especially valuable post-paid customers, when Samsung's eating all the costs for this anyway?

The carriers are not going to abandon the Note7 unless Samsung does. Samsung is too big a partner for them to turn their back on them. Once the Note7 is officially cleared they'll all resume sales. Whether they do it with fanfare and in-store marketing support or bury it on the back page of their websites as "online only" remains to be seen. With revenue and their customer's safety at risk they too have seen data we'll never see. When the carriers started swapping Note7's you can be sure they were content the new ones were safe.

What happens next all hinges on the cause of the issue the Note7 experienced on that Southwest plane. If it doesn't contradict the cause of the problem Samsung provided or cause the solution introduced to be challenged sales will continue. If either the problem or solution are called in to question Samsung's in a world of hurt because it's "back to the drawing board." If that's the case they can either push forward and address the issues and have sales resume at some point in the near future or temporarily suspend sales for a couple of month and reintroduce the "new and improved version" of the Note7 after they hysteria dies down. They could also kill the phone completely as some in the media have suggested but that's truly the nuclear option and incredibly extreme.

So what happens after the Southwest Note7 is autopsied will determine what happens to the Note7 next.