Samsung Electronics Appoints New Smartphone Head

samsungVice chairman and heir-apparent of tech giant Samsung, Jay Y. Lee has made his biggest leadership change yet to the firm, appoint Dongjin Koh as the new president of the mobile communications business.

Current president J.K. Shin will remain on as head of the overall mobile division for Samsung Electronics, but will focus on long-term strategy and developing new growth businesses while Koh takes care of day-to-day management.

Samsung has struggled in the past few years, with its formerly high-earning mobile business struggling to compete with Apple at the high-end, and Huawei Technologies and Xiaomi in the budget market. Lee obviously hopes that a change of leadership will help rejuvenate the business and introduce new ideas that right the ship.

However, analysts have commented that while the appointment suggests the company is acknowledging that changes need to be made, we should not expect drastic changes in strategy anytime soon, and that Koh and Shin are similar in both their management style and outlook. Koh has held mobile business roles since 2006, and both he and Shin have engineering backgrounds.