As iPhone sales slump Apple India head Sanjay Kaul resigns

Amidst the time, when iPhone has been witnessing a slump in growth in India, Apple India head Sanjay Kaul announced its retirement from the company, according to an ET report.

"Sanjay has moved on, he will no longer be heading India operations," one of the people privy to the development told ET.

Kaul, a Canadian citizen, had been named country manager in May last year, after being sales director and head of iPhone sales since April 2011.

The Cupertino giant Apple with 2.2 per cent of market share witnessed the most sluggish growth over five years in FY 2017.  

Meanwhile, Apple has named Michel Coulomb as the new head of sales for the company in India.

Apple is facing a tough time in the country. Recently, the company was forced to increase the prices of iPhone model by an average of 3.5% after the government raised the basic customs duty (BCD) on mobile phones imported into India to 15% from 10%.

Amidst the stiff competition, Apple also failed to maintain the revenue growth. Its revenue growth for the year ended March 2017 slowed to 17 per cent on year at Rs 11,618.7 crore, compared with about 40 per cent annually in the five years to FY16.

The fall in growth comes as Chinese phone makers are observing a huge demand from the Indian market.

Chinese phone maker company Xiaomi witnessed its sales quadrupled in September quarter in India and emerged as the fastest growing smartphone brand in the country, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC).

Xiaomi accounted for 24 per cent of India’s smartphone market in the third quarter, which is over 6 percent rise from the last quarter.

Samsung, which is another largest phone seller in India, also controls 24 percent of the market in India.

Lenovo is at the third position with 9 percent of the market share.

Vivo, which was at the third position with a market share of 13 percent in June quarter, has slipped to the fourth position with 8.5 percent market share.

Another Chinese company Oppo has been able to retain the market share as it controlled 7.9 percent in the September quarter, only 0.1 percent less than the previous quarter.

India now accounts for 10 percent of global smartphone sales with 39 million smartphones sold in the country between July and September this year, which is 21 percent more than during the same period last year.