Japanese electronics giant Sony has announced that Ryoji Chubachi is stepping down as president, but will remain on the board as vice chairman.

Howard Stringer, chairman and chief executive, will stay on to become President after Chubachi steps down on April 1st.

Stringer says the change underlines Sony's commitment to becoming more competitive and rebuilding its image as a technological pioneer.

"We intend to be among the corporate leaders responding to this crisis. The second challenge is the evolution of our competitive environment. We have been grappling with intense competitive shifts taking place in the consumer electronics landscape, with new competitors springing up everywhere, not just Samsung and LG, but Sisco and Hewlett Packard as well as Apple."

The Japanese electronics and entertainment company has been battered by the global slump and the strong yen. It's expecting a 150 billion yen, or nearly 1 and half billion U.S.dollar, net loss for the fiscal year through March. That's a reversal from a net profit of more than 3 billion yen the previous year.