As Samsung gets ready to square up to Apple over the latter’s attempt to have its new Galaxy S III device banned from US markets, the electronics powerhouse has appointed Kwon Oh-hyun as its new CEO.

The current chief of Samsung’s hugely successful chips and display components arm, Kwon takes over the top job at Samsung Electronics having cemented the company’s position as the world’s leader in memory chips, having accumulated almost 50% of the global market share.

Kwon, 59, replaces the outgoing incumbent Choi Gee-sung, who is all set to assume the role of head of corporate strategy at Samsung Group, the parent company which presides over some 81 Samsung businesses, as part of a greater reshuffle which will soon see control of the family-run Samsung transferred to a third generation.

Samsung’s component business stole a huge march on rivals Apple during Kwon’s tenure, becoming the sole supplier of mobile processors for the iPad and iPhone, the biggest rivals to Samsung’s own mobile devices. Kwon, who previously studied at Seoul National University in Korea and Stanford in the US, also has previous experience leading the company’s LCD flat-screen TV enterprise.

Kwon’s appointment comes at a testing time for the electronics giant, as it braces itself for yet another round of court battles following news that Apple has moved to stop US sales of its latest smartphone, the Galaxy S III.  Last Tuesday, Apple Inc. issued a request to a US district court for a temporary ban on selling the Galaxy S III, which they say infringes two of its patents.

Samsung announced early Thursday morning that they would “vigorously oppose” Apple’s bid to ban sales of the S III, stating that they have no plans to change the scheduled June 21 release date in the US.

In a company statement, Samsung iterated their belief that no Apple patents had been infringed in the device:

“We will demonstrate to the court that the Galaxy S III is innovative and distinctive.”

Elsewhere, Samsung has revealed it will expand its mobile processor manufacturing capability, an area identified as its key growth opportunity, with an investment of $1.92 billion. The company said that the money will be used to advance its mobile application processors on 300 millimeter wafers, utilizing 14-nanometer and 20-nanometer processes.

The move should lead to a huge leap in the performance of Samsung’s mobile processors. The slick Exynos 4 Quad processor, which power’s Samsung’s Galaxy S III, is currently built with 32-nanometer processes.