Samsung today has announced that it is co-CEO and mobile division leader JK Shin is stepping down from the day-to-day operations of the smartphone portion of the company.
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The slight reshuffling of executives comes at a time when Samsung has repeatedly failed to regain its lead in the global mobile market.
Before the change, Shin held the double-barreled title of head and president of Samsung Electronic’s mobile business. Phone shipments are headed for their second straight annual decline in the face of intensifying competition from Apple Inc.in the high-end segment and from cheaper device makers like Xiaomi Corp.in China.
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Koh’s new appointment is part of a larger management change that started after Lee Jae Yong, the vice chairman of Samsung Group, began to assume more responsibilities after his father, Samsung Group chairman Lee Kun Hee, had a heart attack previous year. The 54-year-old has followed the typical career path of those who reach senior executive levels in South Korea: he joined Samsung Electronics in 1984 and over three decades worked his way through its development, human resources, product planning and research departments. He was also involved in developing the company’s software solutions such as Samsung Pay and the KNOX mobile security platform. Shin will stay, but without the little of president of mobile reports Bloomberg.
