It has just been confirmed that Kazuo Hirai will be promoted to chief executive and president of Sony as of April 1, 2012. Mr Hirai, 51, currently holds the post of president of Sony Computer Entertainment and is credited with the success of Sony’s video game business in recent years.

Beginning his career at Sony Music is 1984, Mr Hirai has seen a string of promotions and it has also been reported that he was groomed for the chief executive post by Sony, with Howard Stringer current chief executive and president commenting that “his tough-mindedness and leadership skills will be of great benefit to the company and its customers in the months and years ahead”.

Sony is facing some ‘challenging’ times at the moment, with Sony struggling to compete in the mobile market, but Mr Hirai has said he is clear about the path ahead, and that “the focus of the future will be to drive the growth of our core electronics businesses – primarily digital imaging, smart mobile and game, to turn around the television business and to accelerate the innovation that enables us to create new business domain.”

Some commentators are of the opinion that bringing the magic of PlayStation to handsets and the Sony split-screen Fondleslab could see a reverse of fortunes for the brand.

Mr Stringer will be staying on in the role of chairman.