In Research In Motion's Indian unit has said its managing director Frenny Bawa has left the company to pursue other interests, and an interim head will look after the BlackBerry-maker's operations in the country, says Reuters in a report.
The interim head, as per the report, is Urpo Karjalainen, senior vice president for Greater China, India and Australia and New Zealand, who will oversee the business operations for India until a replacement for Bawa is found.
Though BlackBerry sales have been growing faster than the smartphone industry average growth in India, RIM has been mired in technical issues with the Indian government. At the centre of the dispute is how the company allows Indian security agencies to monitor messages flowing through its superfast, encrypted and (mostly) reliable messaging services.
At the same time, RIM has been facing tough competition from new smartphones on the block - iPhone, Galaxy and a slew of Android-powered devices, especially in the more mature but trend-setting markets of US and Europe.
Last month, a four-day global outage of its messaging services also affected a million-or-so BlackBerry users in India. This can have huge implications on the company's future sales in the country.
RIM's credibility has already taken a hit worldwide. Though it still remains a strong favourite with, among other people, IT managers, CIOs, senior executives and businessfolk.
The next few turns of events will have important consequences on enterprise mobility and apps development in India and elsewhere.
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