The move diminishes Shin’s influence on the mobile business as the division looks to reverse a slide in its market share.
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In that respect, company watchers say Koh is virtually indistinguishable from J.K. Shin, the executive previously in change of Samsung’s handset division.
Samsung Electronics announced that it is replacing the president of its mobile communication as the company aims to protect a declining sales lead against Apple Inc. and Chinese makers.
The company’s smartphone division has been facing tough competition from all sides (on both the high- and low-ends) and profits have been in decline for years.
Sub-US$200 devices drove a majority of shipments in many key emerging markets, according to IDC. Samsung rebounded slightly in the third quarter, however, on the strength of a bigger version of the Galaxy S6 Edge and other models.
The new changes are likely to result some improvements in the existing product strategy across mobile devices and home appliances by as early as 2016. “If Samsung fails to revamp its mobile business this year, it will only get harder to make a change next year”. You probably haven’t heard about Mr. Koh, but he has been the man behind Samsung Knox, a mobile enterprise software, and, more recently, Samsung Pay, the mobile payment system that is faring pretty well. Despite the fact his name doesn’t resonate like that of a Dave Burke or Matias Duarte (at least here in North America), nearly everyone that has owned a Samsung smartphone, and indeed most people with some passing knowledge of the mobile landscape, will be familiar with his work.
South Korean conglomerate has said this is part of its annual management reshuffle.
Samsung replaced the president of its mobile communications division in the latest management change at Samsung Mobile.
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Mr Shin, 59, is known in the industry for his hardware expertise and became familiar to consumers when unveiling the Galaxy S4 during a 2013 show at Radio City Music Hall in NY. Bloomberg suggests that Koh’s embedded software past means there might be more of an emphasis on services in future Samsung phones – ironic as it’s the one thing Android enthusiasts want less of from their hardware manufacturers. Mr. Shin narrowly avoided the axe around this time previous year when Samsung opted instead to give pink slips to three other high-level executives.
