Samsung Electronics has apologised to Chinese customers for problems with some mobile phones after a broadcast on China Central Television criticised Samsung repair policies. The world's largest maker of mobile phones, pledged to provide free maintenance, according to Chinese rules, for the seven models included in China Central Television?s report, according to a statement posted on Samsung's China website. The warranty for handsets produced before Nov. 30, 2012, will be extended one year, it said.

In a programme broadcast late on Monday, CCTV said internal multimedia cards cause the software on Samsung Electronics Note and S series smartphones to seize up.

Samsung Electronics said it will fix the Galaxy S3 and Note2 telephones free of charge, and refund customers who already paid for repairs to the devices at authorised service centers. The company also will offer replacements or refunds for phones that could not be repaired.

Seperately, Samsung was fined 10m Taiwanese dollars ($340,000; £210,000) by Taiwan's Fair Trade Commission.

The fine came after an inquiry by the commission into reports that Samsung paid people in Taiwan to criticise rival HTC online. The commission alleged that Samsung had hired the services of an advertising firm, OpenTide Taiwan, to help it with online marketing.