Sunil Lalvani Quits BlackBerry India

Troubled smartphone maker BlackBerry is in the news again. This time around, the news that its India  MD Sunil Lalvani  has resigned has surprised the industry. While BlackBerry is struggling in the North American market and other advanced geographies, India is one emerging market with still a sizeable user base and demonstrated promise for new devices and enterprise services.

Matthew Tonkin, Vice President, Carrier Sales and Distribution, APAC, will take care of India operations in the interim period.

Sunil Lalvani joined Blackberry in 2009 as its enterprise head and was elevated as India MD replacing Sunil Dutt in 2013. But what is surprising is that BlackBerry is going aggressive on the enterprise side of things in India, and Lalvani's expertise lies in this area.

While BlackBerry's roadmap in India for FY 16 remains to be seen,  the  resignation of Sunil Lalvani, a known face in the Indian smartphone space is surely a setback for its India operations. Moreover, as we look at stats from IDC, it said in a report sometime back that  the India smartphone market experienced a shipment contraction in the fourth quarter of 2014 for the first time ever on a quarter over quarter basis. This is not good news for struggling players like BlackBerry.