Samsung Electronics replaced the head of smartphone development with Vice President Won-joon Choi, who was formerly from Qualcomm. Vice President Choi is seen as one of the foremost experts of wireless communication. This is seen as an appointment made to secure Samsung’s lead in the 5th generation (5G) smartphone and next-generation communication market and accelerate the popularization of foldable phones. This is drawing attention as the position of Head of Samsung Smartphone Development is a key position leading to the next Head of the MX Division (Head of the Wireless Division).
Samsung Electronics carried out organizational reorganization and personnel changes last weekend and appointed Won-joon Choi as the Head of Development (Vice President) for the Strategic Product Development Team.
Vice President Choi had led the development of next-generation products like foldable phones as the Head of the Strategic Product Development Team. It has been evaluated that he has increased the global market share of Samsung foldable phone and contributed to the popularization of 5G smartphones.
Vice President Choi is drawing attention due to him being recruited from outside the company. Until now, the Head of Wireless Development had been mainly occupied by people from Samsung Electronics. The philosophy of ability and achievement-centered appointments being placed over ‘pure Samsung lineage’ was reflected in this appointment.
Vice President Choi received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from SNU and received his doctorate in electrical engineering from Stanford University in the USA. After working as a researcher at KAIST, he was put in charge of chipset design at Atheros, his first company. Atheros was a wireless communication chipset company and was acquired by Qualcomm in 2011. He also has experience with starting up the company Amicus Wireless Technology. He was in charge of wireless chipset work at Qualcomm until he was recruited by Samsung Electronics’ Wireless Division to be the next head of the Next-Generation Product Development Group in 2016.
This is the first time a head of wireless development is in their 50s. This makes him 5 years younger than the previous head of development. Advisor Dong-jin Koh (former president) and Tae-moon Roh, the Head of MX Business Division, all sat as heads of development before serving as the Head of the MX Division.
Under the leadership of Chief Choi, Samsung’s wireless business is projected to focus on the development of next-generation products, such as foldables, XR, and 6G. Amid the negative growth of the smartphone market, it appears that they will focus on the development of technology and changes in form factor to increase the competitiveness of the world’s no.1 smartphone.
Samsung Electronics is said to have made significant changes to the head of each development team and organization in the MX division in this organization reorganization and personnel appointment. It appears that the controversy over the Game Optimization Service (GOS) that arose this year played a part in the reorganization.
Vice President Won-joon Choi’s Key Career History
Reporter So-ra Park (srpark@etnews.com)