Apple’s Indian boss Sanjay Kaul is reportedly leaving Apple with immediate effect, following the company’s slowest growth in India in more than five years — and no sign of things turning around soon.
He will be replaced by Michel Coulomb as its top sales executive in India, previously the managing director for Apple in South Asia.
Sanjay Kaul took over as new country sales director back in May 2016, assuming the role from Apple’s previous long-time India head Maneesh Dhir, who quit to pursue other opportunities. A Canadian citizen, Kaul was promoted from his previous role of sales director and head of iPhone sales, which he had held since April 2011.
The shakeup comes at a tough time in India. This week, Apple raised the prices of many iPhone handsets in India, following an increase on import duties intended to give a competitive advantage to phones manufactured in India.
The challenge of growing its market
Apple has also experienced a tough time gaining the necessary permissions to open a major Indian flagship retail store in the country, which Apple has long been pushing for.
At present, the iPhone has around 3 percent of the market share in India. The market leader, Samsung, has 22.8 percent. Apple’s revenue growth in the region for the year ending March 2017 slowed to 17 percent, compared to 40 percent annually in the previous five years.
While there is no doubt that Apple has the same luxury cache in India that it enjoys elsewhere, it looks more and more apparent that growing its market in the country — where incomes are significant less than in the U.S. — is going to be hard work.
Source: Economic Times
