Motorola has announced that its chief executive Ed Zander will step down as of 1st January next year.

After some time as the boss of all things Moto, hugely under pressure for what the AP describe as the "sharp decline" of the Motorola's mobile phone business, Zander will be replaced by president and chief operating officer Greg Brown.

Zander, who will remain chairman until the company's shareholders meeting in May 2008, said he had made the decision to leave, rather than being pushed, despite strong criticism about his, and the company's performance of late.

"This is what I wanted to do", he told The Associated Press.

"You'd like to leave when you're at the top of your game ... You don't like to leave when you have a year like this with mobile devices."

"But I think we have enough structurally done with this company that when mobile devices does get back to its execution, we're a stronger company than we were four years ago."

This was not unexpected and Motorola's share price has risen slightly as a result of the revelation.

>> AP, Via - NYT