Apple is shaking up the top-level management responsible for its international businesses with the aim of giving more attention to India, according to a report from Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman.
The renowned oracle for all things Apple has learned from sources with knowledge of the developments that Apple plans to make India a separate sales region at the company.
To that end, Apple is promoting its Country Manager for India, Ashish Chowdhary. He will replace Hugues Asseman, Apple’s Vice President in charge of India, the Middle East, the Mediterranean, East Europe, and Africa, who recently retired.
The move comes as Apple enjoys explosive growth in the Indian market, where the iPhone maker reported record revenue last quarter despite its global sales dipping by 5%. Apple already has a dedicated online store in India, and a recent report indicated that the company is planning to open its first physical outlets in the region later this year.
In addition to growing consumer demand for Apple products in India, the country is also becoming a focal point of Apple’s supply chain as suppliers set up production capacity in the region.
India is one of the prime destinations for the manufacturing efforts Apple wants to move out of China to reduce its dependence on the Asian superpower as tensions between the U.S. and Beijing rise. Foxconn, which assembles the majority of the global iPhone supply, is already churning out iPhones in India and plans to invest in more factories in the country.
During Apple’s last earnings call, CEO Tim Cook said the tech giant is putting “a lot of emphasis on the [Indian] market.”
He went on to compare Apple’s progress in India to the company’s early years in China. “We are, in essence, taking what we learned in China years ago and how we scale to China and bringing that to bear,” he said.
While Apple is making India its own sales region within the company’s management, Apple’s financial statements will continue to report revenue from India as part of the company’s Europe category.
