Poor Galaxy S5 Reviews Causes Samsung to Replace Mobile Design Boss?

May 08, 2014 08:43 AM EDT | Matt Mercuro

Samsung Electronics has replaced the head of its mobile design team.

Chang Dong-hoon, who offered to resign last week, will be replaced by Lee Min-hyouk, vice president for mobile design, a Samsung spokeswomen confirmed this week to Reuters.

"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 this week.

Back in 2010, Lee, 42, became the youngest senior executive for his role in designing the Galaxy series.

The Galaxy has since knocked off Apple's iPhone as the king of the global smartphone market.

Samsung sells two times more smartphone devices than Apple, mainly due to the success of its Galaxy devices.

Samsung has been battling Apple in court as well the last couple of years.

A U.S. jury recently ordered Samsung to pay approximately $120 million in damages to Apple for stealing two Apple patents. Back in 2012, Apple was awarded $930 million in damages from Samsung, though it failed to convince a judge to issue an injunction to halt sales of Samsung phones.

The company debuted its latest Galaxy device, the S5, last month, though it has received an unenthusiastic response so far from consumers around the globe.

Customers have complained the phone lacks eye-popping hardware innovations, and its plastic case design has been criticized for looking cheap.

The Wall-Street Journal for example said the gold-colored back cover on the S5 looked like a band-aid in their review of the phone.

Chang will still lead Samsung's design center however, which oversees the company's overall design strategy.

Lee started out designing automobiles for Samsung's failed venture with Renault in the 1990s, according to Reuters.

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