BlackBerry has been busy overseas as today it was announced that they have appointed a new Managing Director for their smartphone division in India. As of today, Sunil Lalvani will replace Sunil Dutt after his departure from the company back in March.
This news comes months after the release of the first BlackBerry 10 smartphone, the Z10, and possibly weeks before the Q10 launch in India. It is more than likely Lalvani will be spearheading the Q10 launch in India and help oversee a smooth and successful push for BlackBerry’s new QWERTY BlackBerry 10 device.
Lalvani served as the BlackBerry’s enterprise business head in India. BlackBerry devices once remained the most popular choices among corporate clients in the region. This move might be the one to help BlackBerry regain their loss in market share which has reduced from nearly 15 percent in 2011 to less than 8 percent in 2012 due to cost competition with the likes of Nokia and Samsung. The BlackBerry team in India has flourished under the stewardship of Rick Costanzo over the past two years. Costanzo, who is now BlackBerry’s executive vice president for global sales, will primarily assist in the transition of Lalvani.
Interesting news out of the BlackBerry camp this morning. Since this news, shares have rebounded $0.27 to $15.65 (-.98%) at the time of this post.