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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.
"The realignment will enable Chang to focus more on his role as
head of the Design Strategy Team, the company's corporate design
center 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.
Samsung now sells two times more smartphones than Apple, largely
thanks to the success of Galaxy range.
But the South Korean firm has also been battling patent
litigation the world over, with Apple claiming Samsung copied
the look and feel of the U.S. firm's mobile products.
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-colored
back cover on the S5 looked like a band-aid.
Chang, a former professor who studied at the School of the Art
Institute of Chicago, will continue to lead Samsung's design
center which overseas its overall design strategy.
Lee, who acquired the moniker of "Midas" for his golden touch
with the Galaxy series, started out designing cars for Samsung's
failed auto joint venture with Renault in the 1990s.
(Reporting by Miyoung Kim; Editing by Stephen Coates)
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