Motorola's board of directors Friday revealed that chief executive Ed Zander will be stepping down from his post to be replaced by president and COO Greg Brown.

Brown's influence has been rapidly rising ever since he was named Motorola's chief operating officer last summer and has also been praised by the outgoing CEO Zander who plans to spend the rest of the time with his family.

Motorola was ranked third on Wednesday by a research company, iSupply, in the worldwide mobile phone market showing that it was not performing well having dominated the market before, but now dropping behind Nokia and Samsung.

The mobile phone market is led by Nokia which continues with its handset shipments which are more than other competitors.

Zander once had a good period of high sales and profits as Motorola hit the mobile phone market with its family of RAZR handsets but the popularity of the fashionable phone didn't last for long due to competitors who introduced advanced smart phones.

Brown has experience in running Motorola operations as he led the company's $3.9 billion acquisition of Symbol Technologies as well as reviving Motorola's automotive business to profitability before it was spun off for $1 billion.

Brown joined Motorola in 2003 after serving the public telephone business at AT&T and Ameritech.

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