Struggling handset vendor Sony Ericsson announced a change of leadership on Monday that will see chief executive Dick Komiyama step down at the end of the year, to be replaced by Bert Nordberg, currently executive vice president of Ericsson.

Nordberg will join the firm as co-president from September 1st, assuming full control in mid-October.

The fortunes of the flagging handset vendor improved a little during the second quarter of 2009, with the firm reporting a loss of €213m, compared to a profit of €6m for the same period last year. Loss reported for the first quarter of 2009 was €293m.

But sales for the three month period to the end of June plummeted to €1.68bn, compared to €2.82bn in the second quarter of 2008.

Sony Ericsson shipped 13.8 million handsets during the quarter, a decrease of 43 per cent year on year and a sequential decrease of five per cent, due to continued challenging market conditions in all regions, particularly in Latin America.

In further reshuffling, Howard Stringer, chairman, CEO and president of Sony will take over as chairman of the board of Sony Ericsson on October 15, succeeding Carl-Henric Svanberg, president and CEO of Ericsson, who is leaving to head up BP.