BlackBerry India MD Sunil Lalvani steps down

BlackBerry’s India head, Sunil Lalvani, has put in his papers after a two-year stint with the Canadian handset maker.

In the interim, Vice-President (Carrier Sales and Distribution Asia Pacific) Matthew Tonkin will lead the India operations.

Sunil Lalvani

“I can confirm Sunil Lalvani has left his position as managing director, BlackBerry India to explore opportunities outside of BlackBerry. We thank him for his contributions,” a company spokesperson said.

He added the firm will announce a “permanent replacement” soon. Before taking charge as the managing director of India operations, Lalvani was the head of BlackBerry’s enterprise business. “India is an important market for BlackBerry and we are committed to our customers in this region who demand the most secure and productive mobile communications,” he said. Once an iconic business phone maker, the company has been struggling against competitors like Apple and Samsung in the global smartphone market.

In May this year, BlackBerry had said it will lay off an unspecified number of workers around the world, impacting those working on software, hardware and applications side of the business.

This is part of the company's efforts to make its device business profitable.

According to research firm IDC, BlackBerry's share has declined from 8.1 per cent in October-December 2011 to 0.4 per cent in the last quarter of 2014.