To many, Shin Jong-Kyun, popularly known simply as JK, has been the face of Samsung’s Galaxy smartphone series since he’s always the person taking the stage to unveil new Samsung mobile products. Since 2011, JK Shin has been the head of Samsung’s mobile division and rose to become one of the electronics giant’s three co-CEOs last year.
Owing to the sluggish uptake of the company’s new premium smartphones, increased competition from Chinese phone brands like Xiaomi and others and a dynamic business environment, the company has restructured the top leadership of its mobile business. The new changes see Mr Shin retaining his role as the chief executive officer of the mobile division but ceding running its day-to-day operations to another Samsung insider, Dongjin Koh, who become’s the President of the mobile business.
Koh is widely credited with Samsung’s latest entry into the mobile payments space and the development and growth of its enterprise-level security software, Knox, and is expected to push through with many of the company’s existing policies.
According to Reuters, Mr Shin is expected to focus on long-term strategy and developing new growth businesses.
Samsung Mobile Division’s latest financial results show an increase in device shipments in the last quarter even though the same did not translate into higher profit margins for the company. The new leadership is expected to steer the division back to making high-profit margins by innovating and bringing to market devices that not only capture the customer’s attention over the sea of similar products fronted by competitors but also meets their expectations.
