Samsung executive JK Shin has been given time to breathe new life into the company’s ailing smartphone division.
The Head of Samsung’s Mobile Communications division, JK Shin, will retain his position at least for a little while longer, despite disappointing sales and a slump in profits for the South Korean firm.
We reported recently that there may be a boardroom reshuffle in the wake of flagging sales across the company’s tablet, phablet and smartphone ranges. However, it appears that Mr Shin will be given the chance to turn things around in 2015 instead of being immediately replaced.
Sales in the third quarter of 2014 showed a hugely significant decline on the same time last year, with profits dropping by almost 60%, and it seems that rivals such as Apple and Google are to blame. A Samsung official is quoted as saying that the loss of revenue is “a result of declines in the mobile business due to intensified smartphone competition.”
One area which must have exacerbated the company’s issues is the launch and subsequent sales of their newest flagship, the Galaxy S5. Initial sales of the device were good, but way behind those seen by the Galaxy S4. The bleak result has been a stock surplus which has proved difficult to move, even with increased promotions and advertising which themselves have caused budgets to soar.
Some are hailing this downturn as a similar occurrence to that which affected other big manufacturers. The likes of BlackBerry, Ericsson, Nokia and Palm all took similar sharp downturns, resulting in significant losses – surely a serious worry for a company which until recently was riding high.
While the current situation is far from perfect, we aren’t quite sure that this stagnation represents the company’s death knell. However, with the likes of Apple creating customer loyalty that just can’t be shaken and companies such as Huawei creating powerful, high-end devices for a fraction of the cost of similar smartphones, we hope Mr Shin has something seriously impressive up his sleeve to give Samsung the boost it desperately needs. Something more than just adding curvy screens to the flagship devices, at least.
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