Sony Ericsson Names New PresidentSony Ericsson Names New President

Sony Ericsson will be looking to new leadership to help it rebound, as Ericsson's Bert Nordberg has been tapped to be the company's next president.

Nordberg will be replacing Hideki Komiyama as president of the company's mobile communication division on October 15, and Komiyama will be retiring from the company at the end of the year. Nordberg had been the executive VP of the Ericsson Group, and head of Ericsson Silicon Valley. He said his experience will help boost the company's strategy of offering more content for its devices.

"I am very pleased to be joining Sony Ericsson," said Nordberg in a statement. "With the growing importance of open source platforms, applications and content in the mobile handset industry, I believe the experiences I have gained in Silicon Valley will be very relevant to Sony Ericsson's business going forward."

Nordberg will be facing plenty of challenges though, as the fifth-largest handset maker has posted four straight quarterly losses. The company specializes in high-end feature phones such as its Walkman and Cyber-shot lineup, but that segment has been hammered as the global economic recession is sapping demand for new cell phones.

The smartphone segment continues to grow despite the decline in the mobile industry, but that space is currently dominated by Nokia, Research In Motion, Apple, and HTC. Sony Ericsson is preparing to release three high-end devices in the fourth quarter that may help it gain some traction in the smartphone space, as the Satio, Yari, and Aino have strong multimedia features, and one can even integrate with Sony's PlayStation 3.

The company also said Sony CEO Howard Stringer will become Chairman of the Board for Sony Ericsson October 15. Stringer will succeed Carl-Henric Svanberg, president and CEO of Ericsson.

information has published an in-depth report on the use of business software on smartphones. Download the report here (registration required).