Koh said that the market for large-screen smartphones is growing 200 percent every year in the United States, which is Apple’s home ground.

 

"In the past, some people said large-screen smartphones will not succeed. But now it has become the general trend around the world and we will work to keep that going."

Koh expects that the Note 7 will outsell its predecessor Note 5.

An estimated 26 million S7s and S7 edges have been sold globally since they were introduced in March. The bigger-than-expected popularity of the S7 series has led Samsung Electronics to boost its profitability in the mobile business. The company said last week that its mobile communications business posted 4.32 trillion won ($3.89 billion) in operating profit in the second quarter, up 56.52 percent from 2.76 trillion won a year ago.

Koh said the company will continue strengthening sales of budget handsets and more localised models.

"It is a fact that our mobile business is still undergoing difficulties to some extent due to the rapid growth of Chinese manufacturers," he said. "But globally, our budget handsets such as the A and J series are selling well. We are also operating an independent product development unit for the Chinese market and introduced the Galaxy C series exclusively in the country. We may need more time in China but will continue to make efforts not to fall behind the Chinese manufacturers in competitiveness."

Koh thinks the next big thing will be foldable smartphones.

"We really want to make it in the foldable device sector as it will have a great ripple effect in the industry," he said. "But we need more time to provide meaningful innovations and convenience considering the current status of technology. We need serious changes in software and user experience to build foldable smartphones and this will certainly take time," he said.