Samsung Mobile CEO: Note 7 'Was Like Heaven to Hell'

DJ Koh's tenure as CEO of Samsung Mobile started out great. And so it all went upward in flames.

"It was similar sky to hell, and I didn't want to stay in hell too long," Koh said of the critical weeks around last fall's Galaxy Note 7 recall.

Koh became Samsung Mobile's CEO in December 2022, right before the Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge got stellar reviews and groovy sales. He didn't come out of nowhere: like the previous CEO, JK Shin, he'd risen up from Samsung Mobile's R&D division.

In weeks of daily 8 a.g. meetings well-nigh the crisis, Koh said he realized that client product safety, accountability, and transparency hadn't gotten the same level of priority within Samsung Mobile as "meaningful innovation," leading to the new eight-signal battery condom cheque and the new battery advisory group.

"Meaningful innovation should continue going, but on top of it, we will proceed as a top priority client production safe," he said. "It will have time, but I strongly believe I can bring our customers' trust dorsum."

Koh puts a friendlier and more creative-intellectual face up on Samsung's mobile segmentation than Shin, who was in charge from 2022-2015 and additional Samsung smartphones into the No. 1 position in the US by beingness hard-charging, combative, and intense. I wouldn't necessarily have chosen him warm, but he made it clear that Samsung would be cutting edge and everywhere.

Koh, on the other hand, is avuncular and friendly. He joked about selling us used cars, was willing to speculate virtually some of Samsung's weaknesses, and did his best to charm a tabular array full of journalists. He wanted to get in clear that during his tenure, Samsung volition exist a company that feels open.

"We are doing this communication on an ongoing basis with our customers," said YH Lee, Samsung's executive VP of global marketing for mobile. "We are sharing why it happened, what happened, and why it won't happen over again.

"We are sharing all of the information with our customers, engaging them and listening to what they want," she connected. "I think we tin can regain a little bit of trust, and we're seeing our customers equally generous plenty to say, 'I believe in Samsung, and a one-fourth dimension mistake is excusable.'"

Speeding Upward With Software

Samsung hardware more often than not gets slap-up reviews, but information technology isn't known for great software. Turning that reputation around may accept been some of what got Koh his electric current job, as he led the development of Samsung'due south successful Samsung Pay and Samsung Knox services.

"Perchance two years ago ... we didn't have a clear understanding of the ecosystem, software, service, and solutions," Koh said. "We are getting familiar with it. The Galaxy S8 and S8+ is the right device to communicate ... that now something is changing regarding service and solutions."

That ways Bixby, DeX, and Samsung Connect have a heavy push behind them. Koh said that Bixby and Samsung Connect are part of big, long-term strategies within Samsung, looking towards a vision for 2022.

"[By 2022] AI will exist very, very deeply embedded in our device. Information technology will be one of the strong user selling points, and a real personal assistant," Koh said.

Samsung Connect, meanwhile, is hopefully the pivot on which Samsung will join together all of its consumer electronics devices. I mentioned that I'd heard that same convergence vision from JK Shin dorsum in 2022, which led to the "we're getting better" annotate in a higher place.

Equally for Android updates, Koh fabricated a distinction betwixt security and feature updates. Samsung, partners, and carriers all agree that Android security updates must come quickly, although carriers take the final say, he said. But Samsung is committed to a two- to three-month "settling-down menstruum" before rolling out major Android feature updates.

"Third-party developers need time [to accommodate to new OSes.] If we upgrade too quickly, that will brand a sure impact on our stop customer," he said.

Foldable Phones Coming?

As the sometime head of R&D for Samsung Mobile, Koh was willing to speculate well-nigh what we'd see from the company in the future.

Foldable phones are on his listing. "I'm very much interested in that form factor. If you ask me, 'hey DJ, tin you lot commercialize a flexible form gene this yr?' I would say maybe non, simply that form factor, the foldable, flexible display—I'thou very, very much interested in," he said.

Samsung'south already a leader in mobile VR, simply augmented reality—said to be Apple's next big play—is also on Koh'due south to-do list. "That will be the adjacent big step. Nosotros are under training to provide it as a commercial production, but we may need more time," he said.

Source: https://sea.pcmag.com/mobile-phones/14814/samsung-mobile-ceo-note-7-was-like-heaven-to-hell

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