Smartphone maker BlackBerry, formerly known as Reliance in Motion (RIM), has announced the appointment of Sunil Lalvani as the managing director (MD) of its India operations.

Mr. Lalvani, who has so far been service the company as head of enterprise sales, has replaced Sunil Dutt, who stepped down from the position in March 2013. Mr. Dutt served the company as managing director of India operations for nearly 14 months.

BlackBerry has appointed Mr. Lalvani as managing director of India operations as it is driving the adoption of its new mobile operating system, called BlackBerry 10.

Commenting on his appointment as managing director of India operations, Mr. Lalvani said, "As I take up this new role, our focus will be to drive differentiated solutions for consumers and enterprise customers in India, and providing a unique mobility experience."

He joined BlackBerry in the year 2009. Prior to joining BlackBerry, Lalvani served several big-name companies, including Cisco, Nokia and Global Telesystems.

Waterloo, Canada-based BlackBerry, which recently launched its touch-based smartphone Blackberry Z10, has long been struggling to regain market share that it lost to rivals like Apple and Samsung.