New Samsung CEO seen as an Apple-friendly choice
The complicated corporate relationship between Apple and Samsung took a new twist on Thursday, when Samsung named a new CEO who comes from the company's semiconductor and LCD screen businesses, where Apple is the biggest customer.
Samsung currently builds the ARM-based processors Apple uses in its immensely popular iPhone and iPad devices, and Samsung is also the primary provider of Retina displays for Apple's new iPad. Those relationships between the two companies have led some to see the naming of Kwon Oh-hyun as a choice that could be favorable to Apple.
Kwon has been the head of Samsung's chips and display businesses, and under his watch Samsung became the sole supplier of mobile processors for the iPhone and iPad, Reuters reported on Thursday. Kwon, 59, also oversaw a restructuring of Samsung's LCD business.
The report included comment from one analyst, Lee Sun-tae of NH INvestment & Securities, who said it appears that Samsung is attempting to retain Apple as a customer, even though the two companies are bitter rivals. Part of that strategy could be naming Kwon, who was in charge when Apple became Samsung's biggest customer, the company's new CEO.
Samsung is also said to be planning to enhance its relationship with Apple by building more logic chips for the iPhone and iPad. That is expected to occur after Samsung switches a memory chip line in Austin, Tex., to non-memory production.
Samsung's previous CEO, Choi Gee-sung, will be the new head of corporate strategy at Samsung Group, which oversees 81 companies including Samsung Electronics. Choi has been with Samsung for more than three decades.
Choi was personally involved in court-mandated settlement talks with Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook last month. The two companies were asked to come together in an effort to settle a series of ongoing patent infringement suits each has filed against the other.
But the talks featuring both Choi and Cook in San Francisco, Calif., failed to result in a resolution. As a result, a patent infringement case between the two is scheduled to go to trial later this month.
Apple has continued its litigation against Samsung this week, as the iPhone maker filed a new motion seeking an injunction to block the launch of Samsung's new Galaxy S III smartphone in the U.S. Samsung responded by criticizing Apple for filing the motion "on two days' notice, without due process, and with no factual record whatsoever."
Samsung currently builds the ARM-based processors Apple uses in its immensely popular iPhone and iPad devices, and Samsung is also the primary provider of Retina displays for Apple's new iPad. Those relationships between the two companies have led some to see the naming of Kwon Oh-hyun as a choice that could be favorable to Apple.
Kwon has been the head of Samsung's chips and display businesses, and under his watch Samsung became the sole supplier of mobile processors for the iPhone and iPad, Reuters reported on Thursday. Kwon, 59, also oversaw a restructuring of Samsung's LCD business.
The report included comment from one analyst, Lee Sun-tae of NH INvestment & Securities, who said it appears that Samsung is attempting to retain Apple as a customer, even though the two companies are bitter rivals. Part of that strategy could be naming Kwon, who was in charge when Apple became Samsung's biggest customer, the company's new CEO.
Samsung is also said to be planning to enhance its relationship with Apple by building more logic chips for the iPhone and iPad. That is expected to occur after Samsung switches a memory chip line in Austin, Tex., to non-memory production.
Samsung's previous CEO, Choi Gee-sung, will be the new head of corporate strategy at Samsung Group, which oversees 81 companies including Samsung Electronics. Choi has been with Samsung for more than three decades.
Choi was personally involved in court-mandated settlement talks with Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook last month. The two companies were asked to come together in an effort to settle a series of ongoing patent infringement suits each has filed against the other.
But the talks featuring both Choi and Cook in San Francisco, Calif., failed to result in a resolution. As a result, a patent infringement case between the two is scheduled to go to trial later this month.
Apple has continued its litigation against Samsung this week, as the iPhone maker filed a new motion seeking an injunction to block the launch of Samsung's new Galaxy S III smartphone in the U.S. Samsung responded by criticizing Apple for filing the motion "on two days' notice, without due process, and with no factual record whatsoever."
Comments
Let's see if Samsung will be willing to stop ripping off Apple's designs, and then maybe they can enchance their relationship for mutual benefit.
Break him, Tim.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mytdave
Let's see if Samsung will be willing to stop ripping off Apple's designs, and then maybe they can enchance their relationship for mutual benefit.
Beat me to it
With their latest near clone of the Mac Mini, it's almost like they're openly taunting Apple. Hopefully this new CEO can steer them to a mutually beneficial place.
It's like Game of Thrones
Minus the hot women.
Quote:
Originally Posted by acslater017
It's like Game of Thrones
There's a dwarf who gets all the good lines?
I was at a supplier day where Dr. Kwon delivered a presentation a few years ago. He has a very impressive intellect.
Obviously, it's not really possible to tell when you don't speak to someone directly, but he came across as a fairly nice chap as well.
Samsung need to sort their shit out. There was a time when they were a highly respected company, with original ideas, innovative affordable products etc. When I visited Seoul to visit a friend it amazed me how intensely proud the koreans were of Samsung.
Quote:
Originally Posted by quamb
Samsung need to sort their shit out. There was a time when they were a highly respected company, with original ideas, innovative affordable products etc. When I visited Seoul to visit a friend it amazed me how intensely proud the koreans were of Samsung.
Yet a large number of Americans $h!t all over Apple.
Quote:
Originally Posted by quamb
Samsung need to sort their shit out. There was a time when they were a highly respected company, with original ideas, innovative affordable products etc. When I visited Seoul to visit a friend it amazed me how intensely proud the koreans were of Samsung.
not sure if that's true. Samsung was primarily in OEM biz and didn't really have much brand recognition until last decade or so (when they finally reorg'ed and consolidated their marketing effort).
Quote:
Originally Posted by mytdave
Let's see if Samsung will be willing to stop ripping off Apple's designs, and then maybe they can enchance their relationship for mutual benefit.
I wish...Samsung sucks.
The fact that they are the largest OEM sucks as well...I hope Google's rumored 5 Nexus devices takes off.
It's hard to imagine Samsung giving up on their Apple aping ways though-- in that it seems to have worked out pretty well for them so far. I mean, the Apple thing goes way beyond some handsets and tablets copying Apple's look and feel. It's clear a decision was made to simply do as many things like Apple as possible-- packaging, advertising, product line, software services, general conceptual positioning, etc. You really get the feeling they consider themselves to have stolen Apple's soul, in some obscure way, and are now literally deserving of everything that goes with that.
But maybe it's more cavalier than that, and someone made the calculation that they can continue to make perfectly nice stuff without risking losing a giant parts customer. Because as it stands sometimes it seems like they're actually going out of their way to piss Apple off, just because they can. Like the new Chrome box that copies the Mini down to the circular ventilation opening on the bottom, or the touch screen TV remote that was even more of an iPhone clone than any of their phones (in that it could dispense with the Android stuff and go straight for the home button). That kind of stuff seems actually vindictive rather than a means to an end, just basically saying "**** you Apple." So maybe the outgoing CEO had some kind of issues around that and someone decided that that was becoming a liability.
For many years and decades, Samsung's strategy was simple. Copy Sony..
They've successfully defeated Sony in the LCD panel market but it didn't come cheap. The LCD division is now barely making money, the result of intense price competition.
Imo, Samsung has never been as original or innovative Sony. Many Koreans recognize Samsung as a catch-up company, they would rather buy Samsung than Sony due to nationalism and pride.
Now Samsung views Apple as their #1 competitor as Sony is gradually becoming more or less a media company.