Mobile phone maker Motorola Inc said on Friday that Chief Executive Ed Zander will step down on January 1 and be replaced by Chief Operating Officer Greg Brown.

Zander, who said he plans to spend more time with his family, will continue to serve as chairman until an annual meeting of stockholders in May 2008.

COMMENTS:

BILL CHOI, ANALYST, JEFFERIES & CO

There was still an outside chance that an outsider, a more experienced telecoms executive could possibility come into Motorola ... That we didn't get today, but either way it's a step in a good direction.

Getting Greg Brown is to improve execution. The company has lacked execution. It requires focus and that's what Greg is here to do. Motorola still has a lot of the right parts to succeed: a good brand, good R&D strength, good engineers.

Greg is a good, young executive. There have always been rumors of Motorola being bought out and this signals its intent to remain a standalone company.

LAWRENCE HARRIS, ANALYST, OPPENHEIMER

Earlier this year Greg Brown was appointed president and chief operating officer and he's clearly done an excellent job. He was being given additional responsibility, and increasingly involved in day-to-day operations of the entire company.

What we'll see is additional focus on targets on metrics on goals.

I think Motorola's mobile devices business needs to continue to refresh, to improve their product line. We have seen the new models for the fourth quarter for the holiday season such as the Razr 2 and the 'Q 9' ... and we need more high-end products, more multimedia devices to compete with the likes of the iPhone and Nokia N95. I believe we will be seeing improvements.

JAMES KELLEHER, ANALYST, ARGUS RESEARCH

I think Motorola has waited...to get a little stability in the business before doing this.

It is not terribly surprising.

It would seem that the worst of the activist attacks have passed.

(Reporting by Ritsuko Ando in New York and Jim Finkle in Boston, compiled by Tiffany Wu)

Motorola Electronics