Samsung's top mobile design executive is leaving his current post but not the company and the why is a big topic in news reports Thursday with some claiming it had to do with less-than-stellar reviews of the Galaxy S5.
Chang Don-hoon, who headed up Samsung's mobile design team, will be replaced by Lee Min-hyouk, say reports. Min-hyouk has been serving as vice president for mobile design, according to a spokesperson. Chang will reportedly continue to lead Samsung's design center.
The 42-year-old Lee is responsible for the Galaxy handset.
The news comes as the South Korea handset maker remains embroiled in a patent suit with Apple and adds to the list of mobile and tech innovators changing jobs and leaving posts in the past few weeks.
Just two weeks ago news broke that former Samsung guru Paul Golden is going to serve as an adviser for HTC Chairman Cher Wang who is running HTC's marketing strategy at this point.
HTC just recently launched its One M8 handset and so far it's not gotten the market traction, and hype HTC likely expected. With Golden on board it's a sure bet that won't be the scenario on the next smartphone launch.
Golden served as Samsung's CMO for four years and his LinkedIn resume notes sales doubled from $5 billion to $10 billion and that he drove a four-fold increase in market share for the Galaxy brand. His accomplishments also included achieving a 50 percent increase in Samsung consumer brand preference and an over 50 percent increase in unaided brand awareness.
