Last few quarters have been very painful for Samsung as it lost a major chunk of its global smartphone market share. Its smartphone profits declined rapidly due to cut-throat competition from brands like Xiaomi in the low-end segment and from Apple in the high-end segment. Following this, a lot of Samsung employees were fearing job losses as the companies annual reshuffle neared, but the company declined to comment on the matter. Samsung made just 165 executive level promotions this year, which is the lowest number in the past four years. According to a local Korean newspaper, Samsung is expected to reduce executive-level positions in the mobile communications business by 25 percent. JK Shin retailed his position of mobile chief even after dismal performance in the smartphone market, but some of his juniors weren't so lucky. According to a report from Reuters, Samsung has sacked three of its higher officials, including the global marketing chief JD Lee, who used to directly report to JK Shin. Lee Seung-woo, an analyst at IBK Securities stated that Shin was given another chance by Samsung because of his past contributions, but he will feel the heat going forward.