Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (LON:BC94) (KRX:005930) has revealed that Kevin Packingham, its chief product offer for its mobile division, has left the company. Brian X. Chen reported on the news via The New York Times’ Bits blog.
Reasons for Packingham’s departure unclear
Packingham helped introduce several of the company’s popular Galaxy mobile devices. The Korean electronics giant made the announcement internally this week, although spokespeople for the company would not offer details on what happened. They did not say whether he chose to leave the company or if it was involuntary.
He spent about two years at Samsung Mobile’s location in Dallas and helped with the unveiling of Samsung’s Galaxy S3. The handset was considered by many to be one of the very first devices to be able to compete successfully with Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s iPhone. Sales of the device back up this widely held viewpoint. Packingham also assisted with the negotiations which brought Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (LON:BC94) (KRX:005930)’s smartphones to all of the largest carriers in the U.S. Adding those carriers gave the company a big boost in terms of global market share within the smartphone industry.
Samsung changed smartphone advertising
Last month Packingham gave an interview talking about how Samsung had changed the way smartphone companies marketed their phones. Most smartphone makers relied heavily on carriers to support their devices through marketing campaigns to create demand. However, Samsung itself spent its own money marketing its devices. Most carriers were happy to return the favor and also promote the company’s phones.
He said the change took much of the burden from carriers because consumers started coming into their stores looking for Samsung’s phones, and they didn’t even have to pay to market the phones.
Before going to Samsung, Packingham was CEO of Amerilink Telecom, a smaller company which attempted to bring Huawei’s telecom equipment into Sprint Nextel Corporation (NYSE:S)’s network. Before that, he was a product executive at Spring Nextel.
