Apple appoints Nokia's Ashish Chowdhary to lead India operations

Apple has appointed Nokia's Chief Customer Operations Officer (CCOO) Ashish Chowdhary as operation head for India to oversee the sales function. Chowdhary had joined Nokia in 2003 and will take responsibilities in Apple from January 2019.

Apple CEO Tim Cook had recently said how the company has a "long-term focus on the market" in India. Chowdhary, replacing the company's current India operations head Michel Coulomb could be a move in this direction.

Over the last few months, Apple has lost major market share to new players like OnePlus. The company's market share in India has decreased to just 1 per cent, reports Hindustan Times.

Apple's decision to hire Chowdhary proves that the company is looking for long-term growth in a price-sensitive economy where its products are usually bought by those who have high spending capacity or can afford older generation phones for feasibility.

Nokia said,  "Chowdhary will continue to lead Customer Operations and remain a member of the Nokia Group Leadership Team until the end of 2018. He will then leave Nokia to take a leadership position in another company."

Chowdhary holds a Master's degree in Business Administration from the Wharton School, the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia,  Master's degree in Computer Science from the Emory University, Atlanta and an undergraduate degree in Mathematics from the University of Delhi in India.

Apple CEO Tim Cook had recently said that the weak rupee valuation had forced the company to increase prices of its devices in India.

Currently, Apple's core issue in India primarily revolves around pricing as the majority of the company's revenue is from older iPhone models like iPhone SE and iPhone 6S.

(Edited by Vivek Dubey)