Apple Inc is reshuffling management of its international businesses to put a bigger focus on India, people with knowledge of the matter said, in a sign of the nation’s growing importance.
The shift marks the first time that India becomes a separate sales region at Apple, which has seen demand surge in the country.
That gives the Asian nation increased prominence inside the tech giant, the people said on the condition of anonymity.
Photo: Reuters
Apple is making the change after the retirement of Hugues Asseman, its former vice president in charge of India, the Middle East, Mediterranean, East Europe and Africa. With his departure, the iPhone maker is promoting its head of India, Ashish Chowdhary, who reported to Asseman.
Chowdhary now reports directly to Apple head of product sales Michael Fenger.
The company posted record revenue in India last quarter, even as its total sales slipped 5 percent. 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.
On the last earnings call, Apple chief executive officer Tim Cook said that the company is putting “a lot of emphasis on the market,” and compared the current state of its work in India to its early years in China.
“We are, in essence, taking what we learned in China years ago and how we scale to China and bringing that to bear,” Cook said.
China generates about US$75 billion a year for Apple, making it the company’s largest sales region after the Americas and Europe.
In addition to serving as a sales engine for Apple, India is also becoming more critical to the company’s product development. Key suppliers are moving to the region and Apple is working with manufacturing partner Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), to set up new iPhone production facilities in the country.
Asseman, a two-decade-plus veteran of the company, split his time between Apple’s office in London and its base in Cupertino, California. He began as a marketing manager handling the Mac and iPod lines. He later led retail teams before becoming Apple’s iPhone sales chief for Europe and other international markets in 2011.
Asseman started his latest role in 2015 and retired at the end of last year.
Separately, AirPods maker GoerTek Inc’s (歌爾聲學) Vietnam business chief is leaving the company, days after the executive outlined how Apple’s Chinese suppliers are likely to move capacity out of the country far faster than anticipated to pre-empt fallout from escalating Beijing-Washington tensions.
GoerTek deputy chairman Kazuyoshi Yoshinaga is departing for “personal reasons,” the Chinese firm said in a brief exchange filing.
Apple’s suppliers rarely comment on its thinking, in part because of the US company’s famous insistence on secrecy across its global supply chain.
Yoshinaga did not disclose Apple’s strategy or plans. Instead, he described how big US names are pressuring their Chinese suppliers to explore alternative production bases beyond the country, such as India and Vietnam.
GoerTek is investing an initial US$280 million in a new Vietnam plant while considering an India expansion, Yoshinaga said during last month’s interview.
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