Samsung VP switches camps to head the Windows Phone team
Gavin Kim, who used to be heading the Consumer and Enterprise services division of Samsung, has left to join the budding Windows Phone team as its general manager.
Each time a consumer goes to buy a smartphone from a carrier or retail store, Windows Phone has to be on their short list. And, with the Windows Phone 7.5 release, I think Microsoft is closing the gap rapidly and removing all doubt about their place in mobile.
Samsung is doing things the right way in the mobile industry, as its Q3 results confirm - it surpassed HTC in profit margins, and Apple in smartphones sold, plus it issued an upbeat guidance for Q4.
Gavin Kim, however, seems to have needed a new challenge after seeing that Samsung's ship is heading in the right direction, judging from his wordy statements about the new position at Microsoft:
I will be responsible to help set the future direction for the Windows Phone platform and to accelerate Microsoft’s trajectory to win the hearts and minds of consumers, carriers, device manufacturers, developers and partners. In my experience, there is an already fervent base of Windows Phone supporters out there and they all get it. They are passionate, and already very vocal about it … so, it is really my new job to make sure we reflect that message clearly in our product and marketing collaborations with all of our partners to create more Windows Phone believers.
I see this as an amazing opportunity to work with industry talents like Andy Lees, Chris Capossela, Terry Myerson, Joe Belfiore, Achim Berg, and others, to build on their incredible successes and continue to move the ball forward here in the US and globally. I anticipate I’m going to learn a lot from them, and I hope to equally contribute my experience back. The fact that I’ve chosen to join the team means we get along well, we believe in each other’s capabilities, and we share a common vision, attitude, and belief about the products and partnerships that the team is creating. And, probably most importantly, we all want to win.
On Samsung and its future, Mr Kim only had kind words to say:
Samsung has a very bright future ahead of itself. They have brought to market fantastic products, have a coveted technology innovation pipeline, and are committed to bringing these innovations to consumers across a vast consumer electronics portfolio. There is a tremendous amount of synergy between Microsoft and Samsung and the relationship between the companies will only continue to grow stronger and more collaborative over time.
The Korean company itself seems to hold no hard feelings about Gavin Kim's departure, as it said in a statement he will still stay in Samsung's "extended family" via the deep partnership with Microsoft that the company signed recently.
Microsoft is pretty upbeat about Windows Phone's prospects of becoming the third major mobile ecosystem after Android and iOS, and this excitement is obviously resonating with industry insiders as well, which might turn out as important for Microsoft, as the marketing dollars Redmond and the OEMs are spending to drum up the fall crop of WP devices.
source: BGR
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