Sony Mobile appoints new president and CEO

Sony Mobile has announced that Sony Corporation’s corporate executive officer and executive VP Kunimasa Suzuki will become its new president and CEO from May 16.

Suzuki will replace Bert Nordberg who headed up the business during its transition from Sony Ericsson to Sony Mobile following Ericsson’s exit from the handset joint venture, first announced last October. Nordberg becomes chairman of the Sony Mobile Communications board.

It was announced that Suzuki would assume responsibility for planning and design of all of Sony’s consumer products and services and to drive the horizontal integration of different product lines. The mobile business has been identified by Sony as one of its core electronics business areas.

Suzuki will continue in his Sony Corporation roles alongside his responsibility for the mobile division, and will be based in Lund, Sweden and Tokyo. Yoshihisa Ishida and Kristian Tear will continue as deputy CEO and executive VP of sales and marketing for Sony Mobile, respectively.

Suzuki reiterated Sony Mobile’s plan to focus exclusively on smartphones in 2012.