“Samsung Electronics Co Ltd , the world’s biggest handset maker, has replaced the head of its mobile design team amid criticism of the latest Galaxy S smartphone,” Miyoung Kim reports for Reuters.
“Chang Dong-hoon offered to resign last week and will be replaced by Lee Min-hyouk, vice president for mobile design, a Samsung spokeswoman said on Thursday,” Kim reports. “‘The realignment will enable Chang to focus more on his role as head of the Design Strategy Team, the company’s corporate design centre which is responsible for long-term design strategy across all of Samsung’s businesses, including Mobile Communications,’ Samsung said in a statement.”
“Lee, 42, became Samsung’s youngest senior executive in 2010 for his role in designing the Galaxy series, a roaring success which unseated Apple Inc’s iPhone as king of the global smartphone market,” Kim reports. “Samsung now sells two times more smartphones than Apple, largely thanks to the success of Galaxy range.”
MacDailyNews Take: And makes half as much profit, since Apple is not competing on unit share as they’re not slime bucket, immoral copiers who try (and fail) to make it up on volume. The king of the global smartphone market is Apple, honey, not Samsung.
Kim continues, “The Galaxy S5, which debuted globally last month, has received a lukewarm response from consumers due to its lack of eye-popping hardware innovations, while its plastic case design has been panned by some critics for looking cheap and made out of a conveyor belt. The Wall Street Journal said the gold-coloured back cover on the S5 looked like a band-aid.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: It would have been cheaper, and more in line with Samsung’s “design philosophy,” if they replaced Chang with an iPhone 5s and a Xerox copier.
Related article:
Samsung beats Apple’s volume – a race Cupertino does not run – and loses badly to Apple’s profits – May 8, 2014
Head of Design Strategy? How hard is that? Wait for another company to put out a nice deisgn (preferably Apple) then copy it. And he gets paid for that??
What an oxymoron — head of design strategy at Samsung !!! hahaha
“Paying” for good stories only goes do far. Having a “quality” product always wins at the end of the day or might I say “at the end of the quarter.”
I was a bit worried there. When I read that Samsung’s chief phone designer was being replaced, I assumed that Sir Jony was going. Fortunately Samsung are only replacing the bloke who takes Sir Jony’s designs and makes cheaper copies.
Jony Ive can go and take that ugly ass iOS 7 with him…
And you can go and take your ugly ass comments to Doofusville where you live.
Such insecurity and sensitivity on this site whenever someone criticizes iOMess 7!! Lol! If you like an OS that looks like it was designed by a 5 year old, more power to u. Why the hostility towards anyone who doesn’t share your opinion??? Poor small-minded guy 😊😂😂
The “Insecurity through sensitivity” myth has long been debunked and used only by abject imbeciles in search of a Nathan Thurm defense. LOL in your case means Losers Only Lose referring of course to yourself. No it’s annoying only when blatant morons come on here bellowing like a crazed street barker, essentially mumbling to themselves and offering nothing up, take a dump and then leave without rhyme or reason. We’ve heard it before, you’re nothing new, get over yourself and take your comments where they belong at Android Authority. Try an original thought with critical but constructive reasoning next time. Minds don’t come much smaller than yours. Have a fine day.
Side note, does anybody know why apple doesn’t release it’s iPhone in the summer anymore? From the first iPhone to iPhone 4 was all released in summer, now since the 4S it’s been in the fall. Anybody know why? I wish they would change back to June/July
We went over that subject in another related thread a few days back.
Fall is closer to Black Friday.
Fall is closer to the Christmas shopping season.
Samsung now sells two times more smartphones than Apple, largely thanks to…
…Selling cheap knock-offs to suckers. Enough said.
Samsung now sells two times more smartphones than Apple, largely thanks to…
…“Buy one, get one free” deals.
😉
Reuters and others clearly have blinders on and writers who aren’t very perceptive or knowledgeable. Careful weighing of the facts never figures into their thinking when it’s easier and more simplistic (and desirable) to create sensationalism. Web baiting trumps the real story anyday for them.
Samsuck have a mobile design team???!!
Come on.. Seriously…. Samsung really have a mobile design team???!! !!!???
They’ve been copying, NOT designing any shit!
Must be a Korean translation issue with culturally “design” meaning “to copy poorly” or “to copy half-assed.”
Replaced with an inflatable Jony Ive doll no doubt.
“Unseated Apple”? Really?
Then why fire the design leader?
S5 starting to remind me of a Sony Walkman … prior to iPods.
Logic is an anathema to many web tech writers and anal-cysts.
But, but, but the S5 is water-proofy-resistant-ish….
Samsung Employment Opportunity, must speak fluent Californian with a British accent.
Ability to precisely copy electronic hardware and software an asset.
Apple’s Tim Cook Fires Scott Forstall… Samsung sacks mobile design chief… Samsung still copying Apple?
Love Asymco, but where the hell is the Podcast these days?
I guess Samsung’s “Next Big Thing” didn’t turn out to be that “Big” after all.
Ahh but according to the “always truthful” Fandroid Samsung is the One True Innovator. They couldn’t be fatally wrong could they?
It was a lie and definitely a big one at that.
As Daniel Eran Dilger has pointed out on multiple occasions, the statement that “Samsung sells twice as many smartphones as Apple”, while strictly accurate, isn’t accurate in any way that matters.
Yeah, they sell twice as many smartphones, if you use the weakest possible definition of “smart”, i.e. can browse the internet and run simple applications. Most, maybe the vast majority, of Samsung’s “smartphone” sales, are of cheaper devices that in no way can be seen as competition to the iPhone.
And yes, this is “thanks to the success of the Galaxy range” as the author says. But if you read that as “Galaxy S#” phones, you’re wrong. The “Galaxy range” is pretty darn wide, and includes an awful lot of cheap barely-smartphones that just happen to carry the Galaxy branding.
TL;DR — Yeah, Samsung sells twice as many smartphones… when you include the types of phones Apple doesn’t care about.
——RM
Why hasn’t the mainstream media look at how bad the Plastic Galaxy S5 fails at it’s Fingerprint Scanner implementation. Why hasn’t the mainstream media question the security feature of that POS? Helloooooo!
You’re right. Where the hell is Samsung’s fingerprintgate? They should be rightly shown up as the world’s biggest slavish impostor
“… old design chief last words ” … “Lessons learnt? Mainly.. if you don’t copy Apple EXACTLY like the fingerprint sensor you are f**ked… “.