The biggest Samsung-related news of today has nothing to do with the company’s Galaxy line of devices, or the homegrown Exynos chipsets that power some of them. Rather, it has everything to do with the chief executive behind them: Samsung co-CEO JK Shin is stepping down from his leadership role in the handset business to focus on new growth areas and long-term strategy.
Dongjin Koh, who previously headed Samsung’s research and development department, has been chosen to fill the vacuum left by Shin and is expected to handle day-to-day operations for the mobile division. Koh is believed to have been a major factor in developing Samsung’s latest releases, including the premium Galaxy S6 and Note 5.
Samsung’s JK Shin is stepping down from his leadership role in the handset business to focus on new growth areas and long-term strategy.
But while the consensus about the 2015 flagships were largely positive, they failed to make the earnings impact the Korean firm had hoped for; its smartphone profits continue to wilt this year, largely due to competition from Apple and Chinese phone manufacturers that sell Android devices at dirt-cheap prices. The future doesn’t offer much solace either, as analysts expect global smartphone sales to slow in 2016.
The Galaxy S6 and Note 5 failed to make the earnings impact Samsung had hoped for; its mobile profits continue to wilt this year.
Samsung, at least in terms of its largest business, is in dire straits, so it only makes sense that the company is hoping to get direction from someone whose expertise is mainly in mobile devices. I mean, you could certainly do a lot worse. But regardless of who’s calling the shots, what I’m hoping to see from the biggest Android phone maker is real product innovation. I haven’t seen that from Samsung yet this year.
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