Lenovo's mobile business now under the Motorola umbrella

Reports coming in from China and around suggest that Lenovo’s mobile business will be dissolved, and all phones will be sold under the Motorola branding.

Motorola, if you aren’t aware, has been a Lenovo subsidiary for a while now. However, the Motorola brand is far from ceasing to exist. The brand is still alive and kicking, especially in the west, where Lenovo has been trying to break into the market for a while now.

Gizchina News of the week

Join GizChina on Telegram

It appears as though by dissolving the Lenovo mobile brand, the parent company will leverage the popularity and success of Motorola. Not long back, Lenovo also set up the ZUK brand which debuted with the ZUK Z1.

With competition from China growing exponentially, it will only make sense for a brand as experienced as Lenovo to take a radical step like this one.

What do you think of this new development? Is it the right step for Lenovo?

[ Source]

Disclaimer: We may be compensated by some of the companies whose products we talk about, but our articles and reviews are always our honest opinions. For more details, you can check out our editorial guidelines and learn about how we use affiliate links.

About the author

Yash Garg
Yash is a blogger by profession, builder of things by passion and foodie by birth. You'll usually find him talking about technology, music, travel and the game of cricket on the streets of Pune when not busy writing or speeding his way through the country! Read more on retro handheld gaming on RETRO91
You can learn more about Yash, add him to your Google+ circles or follow him on Twitter to stay connected!

Not bad. Just hope they don’t hike prices.

Stiven
August 27, 2015
I think that they should keep both brands. It would be a shame for lenovo as a brand of phones cease to exist.
- Max
  August 28, 2015
  but lenovo as a brand name won’t cease to exist. maybe in the phone sector, but not in others. 😉
  - Stiven
    August 28, 2015
    And i said “as a brand of phones” this may lead to higher prices, and some more unwanted consequences for buyers.
    - Max
      August 28, 2015

MattD
August 27, 2015
As i recall, after been sold, Motorola still kept his team, making his own decision and marketing without lenovo interferences.
Now, was it really the best choice to leave on their seat many of the businessmen who lead Motorola near to bankruptcy? My personal opinion is: no.
Is it the best choice to leave in their hand the future of lenovo’s mobile sector? My personal opinion is still: no.
Here in the west Motorola is still a milestone, but without the right lead, they will never survive.
I mean… One of their flagship doesn’t even have gyroscope, a thing you can find even on 50$ phones! This put Motorola’s team on the same level of elephone’s… And we all know this is not a good thing lol
Moreover, we’ve seen how much zuk is betting on lenovo’s name… If the news is correct, then zuk’ll be like “yeah, we put on our phones the logo of a company who was once famous. Do not consider the fact that they had great loss and now they doesn’t exist anymore in this business. We know how to do our sh*t, we have a famous logo to confirm it. Trust us.”. It would be quite funny, i’ve got to admit it! 😀
- balcobomber25
  August 27, 2015
  Moto has been run independently since being acquired by Google in 2011. A lot of the members of the current executive team weren’t part of the executive team when they had issues. The guys currently leading are the ones who turned it around with products like the Moto X, Moto E and Moto G.
  - Max
    August 28, 2015
    which are good phones with very decent build quality and software and hardware optimisation companies like elephone lack.
  - MattD
    August 28, 2015
    Ah, i didn’t knew that.
    Still, they are the same guys who went fully retarded after the first moto g, being like “oh hey! The moto g had a decent market this year! Let’s use the same specs for the following 3 years, ignoring the market progress!”
    - balcobomber25
      August 28, 2015
      To their credit tho the Moto G continues to sell well. They lived by the if aint broke, done fix it model. The G has been one of the top selling phones in Motorolla history, no better market progress than that.
      - MattD
        September 1, 2015
        Yeah, the first generation was totally worth the money it costed! But it offered nice specs for the time, and the price was lower… They had the only midrange soc available along with 1 gb of ram while the flagships of the time had 2…
        But now?
        They offer the same old specs at higher price, while the rest of the world has moved forward!
        To offert a phone with 1gb of ram at 250$ while chinese companies offer 2gb of ram for half the price or less, well, it doesn’t sound to me like a good strategy.
        Still moto g is a nice phone, still you pay for top notch quality build and software support, but i just can’t get along with the “i offer the same phone from the past 3 years, so i can give higher price to the slightly better model” strategy…
        If they followed the first moto g’s philosophy, this year’s version would have had sd615 and 2gb of ram as the only available version… Instead they grew a name with the first gen, and then kept rolling with it, tricking costumers with the name like most of the other companies out there, in point of view…
        
        balcobomber25
        September 1, 2015
        But if the phone continues to sell in the millions despite offering the same hardware, why wouldn’t the company keep pushing it? Until the market changes they have no reason to invest more into it.
        And where are you buying a Moto G for $250? It’s $179 unlocked on Moto’s site, even the 2GB version only sells for $219. But sometimes you have to look beyond the price and look at the brands. If I was looking at this phone and say an Elephone which was $40 cheaper with the same specs, I wouldn’t even hesitate to buy this one. Why? I would pay the extra knowing I am getting a quality product. Its the same reason companies like Gionee and Vivo sell their phones for twice what similar equipped Chinese phones sell for. Their customers know they are getting a quality product every time.
        But if I was looking at this phone and a $130 Xiaomi Redmi 2. I would get the Redmi. Lower price can sometimes mean a better deal but it doesn’t always.
        MattD
        September 4, 2015
        I get your point, and i understand why they act like that, but i’ve never get along with this iphone-like politic of “almost the same device, people will buy it anyway because of the name”.
        But i know: it’s just me while i’m thinking as customer, in their place probably i would do the same.
        PS: the 250$ came out from another article talking about the italian price, and i assumed that the price was that one, but yeah… Elsewhere the price is lower, while here it goes like “179$ become 179€ in european price, and then you add on the official price at least 40 € (usually 50 or more) because italy sucks”… Here you have it, 250$ for the 1gb version!

The Bastard Christ
August 27, 2015
Hello.. LeMoto
Dante
August 27, 2015
Lenovo’s Mobile division was extremelly “vast” in one way But with a lot of phones which caused confusion in what model would be the best – Glad to also see that my exclusive insider never gives me false info
Mr.Flying Zoom3rz
August 27, 2015
Such a ridiculous situation! Firstly Lenovo bought the Motorola business and now Lenovo Mobile goes under the Moto umbrella. What the heck…
- Max
  August 28, 2015
  Lenovo is friggin huge outside the phone sector. so why not? motorola is an age old company with loads of experience and a good name, but lacking money. so lenovo bought them and later noticed they are still known and bought by many, but our phones are not. so they sell their phones under the motorola name and use their market share in the west to sell more phones with less costs, because they only have one mobile company to fund, not two. lenovo still outsells many other companies in the notebook sector tho, so they’re still there as a name.

mf1gt3r
August 27, 2015
Not bad. Just hope they don’t hike prices.
Stiven
August 27, 2015
I think that they should keep both brands. It would be a shame for lenovo as a brand of phones cease to exist.
- Max
  August 28, 2015
  but lenovo as a brand name won’t cease to exist. maybe in the phone sector, but not in others. 😉
- Stiven
  August 28, 2015
  And i said “as a brand of phones” this may lead to higher prices, and some more unwanted consequences for buyers.
- Max
  August 28, 2015
  sorry, didn’t see that.

MattD
August 27, 2015
As i recall, after been sold, Motorola still kept his team, making his own decision and marketing without lenovo interferences.
Now, was it really the best choice to leave on their seat many of the businessmen who lead Motorola near to bankruptcy? My personal opinion is: no.
Is it the best choice to leave in their hand the future of lenovo’s mobile sector? My personal opinion is still: no.
Here in the west Motorola is still a milestone, but without the right lead, they will never survive.
I mean… One of their flagship doesn’t even have gyroscope, a thing you can find even on 50$ phones! This put Motorola’s team on the same level of elephone’s… And we all know this is not a good thing lol
Moreover, we’ve seen how much zuk is betting on lenovo’s name… If the news is correct, then zuk’ll be like “yeah, we put on our phones the logo of a company who was once famous. Do not consider the fact that they had great loss and now they doesn’t exist anymore in this business. We know how to do our sh*t, we have a famous logo to confirm it. Trust us.”. It would be quite funny, i’ve got to admit it! 😀
- balcobomber25
  August 27, 2015
  Moto has been run independently since being acquired by Google in 2011. A lot of the members of the current executive team weren’t part of the executive team when they had issues. The guys currently leading are the ones who turned it around with products like the Moto X, Moto E and Moto G.
- Max
  August 28, 2015
  which are good phones with very decent build quality and software and hardware optimisation companies like elephone lack.
- MattD
  August 28, 2015
  Ah, i didn’t knew that.
  Still, they are the same guys who went fully retarded after the first moto g, being like “oh hey! The moto g had a decent market this year! Let’s use the same specs for the following 3 years, ignoring the market progress!”
- balcobomber25
  August 28, 2015
  To their credit tho the Moto G continues to sell well. They lived by the if aint broke, done fix it model. The G has been one of the top selling phones in Motorolla history, no better market progress than that.
- MattD
  September 1, 2015
  Yeah, the first generation was totally worth the money it costed! But it offered nice specs for the time, and the price was lower… They had the only midrange soc available along with 1 gb of ram while the flagships of the time had 2…
  But now?
  They offer the same old specs at higher price, while the rest of the world has moved forward!
  To offert a phone with 1gb of ram at 250$ while chinese companies offer 2gb of ram for half the price or less, well, it doesn’t sound to me like a good strategy.
  Still moto g is a nice phone, still you pay for top notch quality build and software support, but i just can’t get along with the “i offer the same phone from the past 3 years, so i can give higher price to the slightly better model” strategy…
  If they followed the first moto g’s philosophy, this year’s version would have had sd615 and 2gb of ram as the only available version… Instead they grew a name with the first gen, and then kept rolling with it, tricking costumers with the name like most of the other companies out there, in point of view…
- balcobomber25
  September 1, 2015
  But if the phone continues to sell in the millions despite offering the same hardware, why wouldn’t the company keep pushing it? Until the market changes they have no reason to invest more into it.
  And where are you buying a Moto G for $250? It’s $179 unlocked on Moto’s site, even the 2GB version only sells for $219. But sometimes you have to look beyond the price and look at the brands. If I was looking at this phone and say an Elephone which was $40 cheaper with the same specs, I wouldn’t even hesitate to buy this one. Why? I would pay the extra knowing I am getting a quality product. Its the same reason companies like Gionee and Vivo sell their phones for twice what similar equipped Chinese phones sell for. Their customers know they are getting a quality product every time.
  But if I was looking at this phone and a $130 Xiaomi Redmi 2. I would get the Redmi. Lower price can sometimes mean a better deal but it doesn’t always.
- MattD
  September 4, 2015
  I get your point, and i understand why they act like that, but i’ve never get along with this iphone-like politic of “almost the same device, people will buy it anyway because of the name”.
  But i know: it’s just me while i’m thinking as customer, in their place probably i would do the same.
  PS: the 250$ came out from another article talking about the italian price, and i assumed that the price was that one, but yeah… Elsewhere the price is lower, while here it goes like “179$ become 179€ in european price, and then you add on the official price at least 40 € (usually 50 or more) because italy sucks”… Here you have it, 250$ for the 1gb version!

The Bastard Christ
August 27, 2015
Hello.. LeMoto
balcobomber25
August 27, 2015
This is actually very smart business move and one that was probably planned from the start. Lenovo has always made some excellent phones but they have never been able to crack the western markets, even with Kobe Bryant as their pitchman. It’s just not a brand associated with phones in the West, great laptops yes but not phones. Selling the same great phones under the Moto name gives them instant access to some of the biggest markets.
- Sirrr
  August 28, 2015
  - Max
    August 28, 2015
    the moto series is known in the west for relatively cheap prices for very decent hardware. i think lenovo isn’t making much money in the harsh eastern market anymore. they haven’t made many phones in the last 2-3 years. and except from the k3 note, where i only heard good of, they didn’t have a topseller either. they might just focus on the western market where the money is buried as they already do with their notebooks.
  - balcobomber25
    August 28, 2015
    Im interested to see how their pricing structure and their models offered are under the new Moto.

Tony Hounsome
August 27, 2015
Don’t forget…Motorola created TWO milestone ideas before most of us were born………Car stereos and mobile phones. Both major gamechangers in their era….I think they know what they’re doing 🙂
- Oz
  August 28, 2015
  Motorola made the first commercial mobile phone (AMPS system). They were late in adopting the digital mobile (GSM) and lost to Nokia. Motorola brand represents quality! Its pioneered 6 sigma process and what a great company to work for.
  - Tony Hounsome
    January 8, 2016
Dante
August 27, 2015
Lenovo’s Mobile division was extremelly “vast” in one way But with a lot of phones which caused confusion in what model would be the best – Glad to also see that my exclusive insider never gives me false info
Mr.Flying Zoom3rz
August 27, 2015
Such a ridiculous situation! Firstly Lenovo bought the Motorola business and now Lenovo Mobile goes under the Moto umbrella. What the heck…
- Max
  August 28, 2015
  Lenovo is friggin huge outside the phone sector. so why not? motorola is an age old company with loads of experience and a good name, but lacking money. so lenovo bought them and later noticed they are still known and bought by many, but our phones are not. so they sell their phones under the motorola name and use their market share in the west to sell more phones with less costs, because they only have one mobile company to fund, not two. lenovo still outsells many other companies in the notebook sector tho, so they’re still there as a name.

Venci
August 27, 2015
have to say i don’t like lenovo that much, but motorola is one of the few brands i am fan of.
So yes love the idea !
- MickyLo
  August 28, 2015
  motorola is a Great company, but the influence of motorola has been more and more weak
balcobomber25
August 27, 2015
This is actually very smart business move and one that was probably planned from the start. Lenovo has always made some excellent phones but they have never been able to crack the western markets, even with Kobe Bryant as their pitchman. It’s just not a brand associated with phones in the West, great laptops yes but not phones. Selling the same great phones under the Moto name gives them instant access to some of the biggest markets.
- Sirrr
  August 28, 2015
  couldn’t agree with you more, but also means the prices will be accordingly
- Max
  August 28, 2015
  the moto series is known in the west for relatively cheap prices for very decent hardware. i think lenovo isn’t making much money in the harsh eastern market anymore. they haven’t made many phones in the last 2-3 years. and except from the k3 note, where i only heard good of, they didn’t have a topseller either. they might just focus on the western market where the money is buried as they already do with their notebooks.
- balcobomber25
  August 28, 2015
  Im interested to see how their pricing structure and their models offered are under the new Moto.

Tony Hounsome
August 27, 2015
Don’t forget…Motorola created TWO milestone ideas before most of us were born………Car stereos and mobile phones. Both major gamechangers in their era….I think they know what they’re doing 🙂
- Guest
  August 28, 2015
  Motorola made the first commercial mobile phone (AMPS system). They were late in adopting the digital mobile (GSM) and lost to Nokia. Motorola brand represents quality! Its pioneered 6 sigma process and what a great company to work for.
- Tony Hounsome
  January 8, 2016
  Yup…The other was the ‘car stereo’ !
Venci
August 27, 2015
have to say i don’t like lenovo that much, but motorola is one of the few brands i am fan of.
So yes love the idea !
- MickyLo
  August 28, 2015
  motorola is a Great company, but the influence of motorola has been more and more weak

Lenovo’s mobile business now under the Motorola umbrella

Gizchina News of the week

Yash Garg

Today in Home