Lenovo ends Motorola brand and launches Moto by Lenovo

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When Lenovo Group of China acquired Motorola Mobility, one of the most important assets it valued was its well-known "Motorola" brand. However, according to foreign media reports, Lenovo Group has begun to change its brand strategy and will gradually eliminate "Motorola" and replace it with "Moto by Lenovo" (Moto brand from Lenovo Group).

At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in the United States, Rick Osterloh, chief operating officer of Motorola Mobility (an independent subsidiary of Lenovo Group), told the American technology news website CNET: "We will gradually abandon the Motorola brand and pay more attention to the 'Moto' brand."

According to reports, Motorola is a classic brand for consumers in the United States and around the world. However, in the future, Lenovo Group's mobile phones will remove this word and Lenovo will present the "Moto by Lenovo" brand.

However, what may comfort old fans a little is that the traditional "M"-shaped trademark pattern will still appear on Motorola-related products.

In 2014, Lenovo Group spent $2.9 billion to acquire Motorola Mobility from Google (Weibo), mainly targeting the other party's brand, mobile phone design capabilities and some patent assets. Last year, Lenovo Group carried out a major reorganization of its smartphone business, and the Motorola Mobility team took over the group's underperforming mobile phone business.

Lenovo also said it would integrate its brands to avoid competition between its two brands, with Moto targeting high-end mobile phones worldwide, while other mid-range and low-end mobile phones would use other Lenovo brands (including Vibe).

The above-mentioned executives said that as a business unit and subsidiary of Lenovo Group, the name "Motorola" will continue to exist internally.

The end of Motorola

The US media pointed out that the disappearance of the Motorola brand from Lenovo's electronic products also means the end of a brilliant enterprise in the mobile communications industry. Back then, Motorola invented the world's first mobile phone. In the 2000s, Motorola's Razr and other mobile phones, as well as its "Hello Moto" ringtone, were all the rage.

For many veteran mobile phone users, they may still remember the first mobile phone they bought, the Motorola DynaTAC.

However, in the midst of market competition and technological change, Motorola Mobility gradually fell. In 2012, Google spent more than $12 billion to acquire the company, with the main purpose of obtaining its rich patent library, so as to maintain its advantage in the mobile patent litigation war with Apple and other companies.

Under Google, Motorola's mobile phone business did not improve, and two years later, Google chose to transfer it to Lenovo Group.

When announcing the acquisition, Lenovo Group Chairman Yang Yuanqing said: "The Motorola brand is our wealth. We will not only protect this brand, but also make it stronger."

According to media analysis, Lenovo hopes to combine its corporate brand with the "Moto" brand to unify its brand image. In addition, Lenovo's company logo will also be featured in mobile phones such as the "Moto X."

Although Motorola was once an iconic company in the mobile communications industry, it is now in turmoil. In the US and global markets, Apple and Samsung Electronics have replaced Motorola's former leading position.

Ending Motorola may not be a wise choice

Some industry insiders also expressed their incomprehension about Lenovo Group's decision to end the "Motorola" brand.

Carolina Milanesi, an analyst at technology market research firm Kantar WorldPanel, said that "Lenovo" is not a bad brand, but the Motorola brand is meaningful, especially in the mobile communications industry, and it is not wise for Lenovo to abandon this brand.

US media pointed out that Motorola phones are still popular among some Android users, and these consumers will be more familiar with the Lenovo brand in the future. In fact, although Lenovo Group is the world's largest personal computer manufacturer, it is not the most popular brand when consumers buy smartphones and other mobile products.

According to reports, along with the integration of Lenovo's mobile phone business, Lenovo will also promote another "Vibe" sub-brand in some markets where the Moto brand is already active. The mobile phones of this brand will be less than $100, and Motorola will use the existing Moto operator partnerships and sales channels to promote them.

Rick Osterloh, the executive mentioned above, also said that Lenovo also plans to introduce the mid-to-low-end Vibe brand to the US market, but it may not be until after 2017. He said that it is necessary for Lenovo Group to maintain full coverage of high-end brands to low-end brands in every market.

In the global smartphone industry, Samsung Electronics and Huawei, the two first-tier manufacturers, have maintained full coverage of the high, medium and low-end markets and adopted a "sea of ​​​​machines strategy". In contrast, Apple focuses on the high-end, while another Chinese company, Xiaomi, focuses mainly on the mid-end and low-end.