SEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (>> Samsung Electronics Co Ltd) on Monday said battery defects caused its premium Galaxy Note 7 phones to catch fire, not the device's software or hardware.

The announcement comes more than three months after the world's top smartphone maker scrapped the short-lived competitor of Apple Inc's (>> Apple Inc.) iPhones, costing $5.3 billion in operating profit and damaging its reputation.

(Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin; Editing by STephen Coates)

Stocks treated in this article : Apple Inc., Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, Samsung SDI Co Ltd