Sony Ericsson’s UK managing director John Harber will quit the business in the coming weeks, Mobile can reveal.

His departure comes as the latest sales figures show that the manufacturer recently leapt to the number one position in the UK market for a one week period, for the first time in its history.

Harber is leaving to join headset venture Aliph and its Jawbone headset brand as vice president across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Staff at Sony Ericsson’s UK head office in Farnborough were informed on Monday this week (17 November), with key trading partners told on Wednesday.

It came just one week after the company had been celebrating news of edging past Samsung and Nokia to take the top spot for the UK, with what is believed to be a 28% share, fuelled largely by sales of the C905 handset.

Meanwhile, Harber is the third UK head of a manufacturer to leave his post in the last fortnight, following Nokia’s managing director, Simon Ainslie, who has taken a vice president role within the Nokia group, and Jim Michel, Motorola’s UK general manager, who left the company last week.

Harber has been with Sony Ericsson, and previously with Sony, for a total of 18 years, starting out as a call centre staffer while still a student.

After graduating, Harber became a marketing assistant for Sony, and has since occupied senior roles within the company, under the Vaio, Cyber-shot Handycam and Walkman brands, before being appointed UK managing director three years ago.

The manufacturer has been mired with a series of problems globally, with profits falling 97%, global share dropping to 8% and CEO Dick Komiyama announcing 2,000 job cuts across its territories, not including the UK.