Apple’s senior executives of its international businesses division were recently reshuffled to make India its sales region for the first time. Bloomberg reports that after the retirement of Apple VP Hugues Asseman in charge of India, the Middle East, the Mediterranean, East Europe, and Africa, the company has promoted Ashish Chowdhary to step in his role.
In 2020, the tech company entered the Indian market by locally manufacturing iPhone SE 2. Since then, it has expanded its production footprint in the country as part of its diversification efforts out of China and has created thousands of jobs.
In late 2022, Apple began shipping made in India iPhone 14 and 14 Plus models only a few months after their launch out of China. Its supply partners are making big investments to establish factories in India to manufacture parts and assembly iPhones like Foxconn. The Cupertino tech giant is also started hiring for its first retail store in the country this year.
While Apple sales stall in major markets, they grow in India
Ashish Chowdhary was the company’s head of India who reported to Asseman. Now, Chowdhary will report to Michael Fenger, head of product sales, directly.
The report explains that the change is motivated by the “surge” in demand for Apple products in the country.
The company posted record revenue in India last quarter, even as its total sales slipped 5%. Apple has created an online store to serve the region and is planning to open its first retail outlets in the country later this year.
At the Q1, 2023 earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that India was an exciting market for the company and “a major focus”. In spite of headwinds, the company saw double digits growth in India during that quarter.
We will soon bring Apple retail there. So we’re putting a lot of emphasis on the market. There’s been a lot done from a financing options and trade-ins to make products more affordable and give people more options to buy. And so there’s a lot going on there.
We are, in essence, taking what we learned in China years ago and how we scale to China and bringing that to bear.
