Among the leadership transfers, reactions were especially mixed about the transfer of Samsung SDS president and CEO Jun Dong-soo to president of Samsung Electronics’ health and medical equipment business division. Samsung also outfitted other 2015 flagships including the Galaxy S6 Edge, the Galaxy S6 Edge + and Galaxy Note 5 with similar designs.
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Based on D.J. Koh’s experience with Samsung Knox and Pay, analysts believe his appointment to the head of Samsung’s mobile business could signal the company’s plans to focus on software and services rather than hardware innovations like curved screens. Earlier this week Patently Mobile posted a report about some of the new smartphone form factors that Samsung is contemplating for the future.
The de-facto leader made little changes in last year’s annual reshuffle, apparently seeking stability in the group’s management in the absence of Chairman Lee.
Conduct a Google search for Koh and you’re more likely to find something about a electronic DJ than the Samsung executive.
The change comes as Samsung is struggling to turn around its smartphone business for quite some time now. Samsung is facing renewed competition from Apple on the high-end of the market and Xiaomi and Huawei at the budget end.
The management shake up is also part of a string of recent executive departures at Samsung.
“To keep Samsung’s policy of respecting leaders with knowledge in technology, the promotions were given to those who led the development of key mobile and chip products”, Samsung Group said.
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. The company could make a few “minor” design changes with the Samsung Galaxy S7 release, but it sounds like it will essentially be the same handset from a design standpoint.
That decision led to Samsung announcing a slump in quarterly profits from its smartphone business during the summer.
Samsung has lost its edge in worldwide smartphone sales over the last two years.
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Lee Sang Hun, an analyst at HI Investment and Securities said before the announcement that Lee Jae Yong’s watchful approach previous year offered steadiness to Samsung after his father’s illness, but he added that much more improvement is required now following the boring performance of Samsung Electronics.
