P Balaji, VP, Communications, Corporate Affairs & Business Development, Ericsson India has put in papers.
Balaji has been the face of Ericsson India for several years. His absence at Ericsson India, which is doing well despite the government imposed security guidelines on telecom equipment imports, will pose challenges to the top telecom infrastructure equipment vendor in the country.
In the first quarter of 2011, Ericsson reported that India sales increased 38 percent year-over-year and 11 percent sequentially. Growth was strongly driven by 2G and 3G deployments in the country.
Recently, Ericsson India had undergone top level changes with Gowton Achaibar, president India, moving out. Achaibar had joined Ericsson India in December 2008.
Industry people suggests that Balaji will be heading Sony Ericsson’s India business. Sony Ericsson is struggling to regain its lost business in India. It is competing with handset major Nokia, which lost considerable marketshare, Samsung and new handset players such as Micromax, Spice, etc.
Sony Ericsson India experienced several top level changes in the recent past. Apparently, Sony Ericsson is celebrating its 10th year as a joint venture between Sony Corporation and Ericsson in October, 2011.
Industry is hoping that the company could well with Balaji at the top position. But competition is becoming tough in the Indian handset market with Huawei also joining the open mobile market.
When contacted, Balaji was not available for comments.
Over the years the company has brought together the best communication technologies with superior entertainment user experiences to create its Xperia line of the ‘most entertaining smartphones’ in the mobile handset industry.
With its global corporate functions in London, Sony Ericsson has sales and marketing operations in all major regions of the world, as well as manufacturing in China, and product development sites in China, Japan, Sweden and Silicon Valley, California.
By Baburajan K
