Bowing to investor pressure, Motorola has installed Greg Brown as CEO, effective Jan. 1, succeeding Edward Zander, who will remain at the company as chairman of the board of directors until the annual meeting of stockholders in May 2008.

Zander held the reins of Motorola for just less than three years. During that time, he presided over a Motorola resurgence that was fueled largely by the great success of the Razr cell phone, introduced two years ago.

Motorola has long been a key supplier to the cable TV industry, but during Zander’s tenure, Motorola also bought a large handful of companies that together make Motorola an even more integral part of the communications system supply chain.

But the big money for Motorola was coming from cell phones, and Motorola didn’t follow up on the Razr’s success, which inflamed dissident investor Carl Icahn, who has been agitating for Zander’s removal for months.

Brown was Zander’s heir apparent. Since March, he had served as Motorola’s president and COO, and he was also elected to the company’s board. Prior to becoming president and COO, Brown headed four different businesses at Motorola, led the $3.9 billion acquisition of Symbol Technologies and was involved in sharpening Motorola’s focus on enterprise products.