John Sculley, the former chief of Apple who apparently fired the late Steve Jobs from the company in the mid-1980s, is funding a venture that aims to launch low-cost smartphones in India that will be priced between Rs 5,000 and Rs 8,000.
Sculley is bullish on growth in the Indian telecom market and has invested $20 million in the venture that will sell phones branded as 'Obi'. "We hope to sell a million units and aim to turn the venture profitable within 5 months of launch," he told CNBC-TV18 in an interaction, adding that he expected gross margins for the company to be in the 20 percent range.
The company has roped in Ajay Sharma, who has previously worked with Micromax and HTC India, to head the foray.
In 1983, Sculley was brought in as CEO by Apple co-founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak to steer the fledgling tech company through the launch of the Macintosh but Sculley and Jobs suffered a fallout over product strategy.
Jobs later claimed he was fired from Apple while Sculley said Jobs was demoted and he resigned soon after.
But in a historic turn of events, Jobs returned in the mid-1990s to resurrect Apple from near bankruptcy to make it the telecom behemoth it is today.
One of the world's top smartphone makers, Apple operates in India but has failed to make significant inroads into the local smartphone market where Korean rival Samsung is a top player.
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