Samsung parts ways with mobile design chief
Samsung has replaced the head of its mobile team team due to the lacklustre entry of the Galaxy S5 in the mobility market.
According to Reuters, former Samsung mobile design chief Chang Dong-hoon offered to step down last week and will be replaced by the design vice president, Lee Min-hyouk.
The reason? Poor sales of the new flagship Galaxy device and the failure to take the mobile market by storm on the release of the S5.
While Chang will continue to run Samsung's design centre and will stay involved in overall design strategy, 42-year-old Lee will take over the executive's duties as design head. Lee began his career with Samsung designing cars for a joint venture between the South Korean firm and Renault in the 1990s. The designer later became an established Samsung executive due to his participation in designing the Galaxy series.
According to IDC, smartphone vendors shipped 284.8 million smartphones, up over 30 percent year-on-year, and Samsung retained a market share of 30.2 percent, in comparison to Apple's share of 15.5 percent. Both companies lost marketshare since 2013, but remain lengths ahead of rivals including Huawei, Lenovo, and LG.
While Samsung sells more smartphones than rival iPhone and iPad maker Apple, the two companies are currently embroiled within patent litigation that has spanned across courtrooms and countries worldwide.
While Apple claims that Samsung copied the look and feel of its devices, Samsung also claims that its rival infringed upon a number of patents.
In the latest courtroom appearance, an eight-person jury within the US District Court of the Northern District of California found that Samsung infringed upon some of Apple's mobile technology patents, and was ordered to pay roughly $119.6 million in damages. However, the jury also found that Apple infringed upon Samsung-owned intellectual property, and was ordered to pay approximately $119.6 million in its turn.