CES 2016: Lenovo Killing Off Motorola Brand of Mobile Phones
Motorola was the first company to create a modern cellular telephone, but the brand will soon be phased out. Lenovo is Motorola's parent company and will start putting their logo on future Motorola phones.
Lenovo announced at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) on Thursday that it will phase out Motorola this year and focus on the Lenovo brand name, Digital Trends reports.
Lenovo acquired Motorola Mobility in 2014 and will focus on two types of devices, the Motorola Moto and the Lenovo Vibe. The Moto devices will be the high-end devices while the Vibe devices will be budget-friendly.
"We'll slowly phase out Motorola and focus on Moto," Motorola CEO Rick Osterloh told CNet Thursday at the CES conference in Las Vegas.
Motorola will not completely disappear though. The Motorola "M" bat logo will still appear on future Motorola phones, but the Lenovo logo will also have a spot on the phone too.
When Lenovo acquired Motorola back in 2014, the company's CEO Yang Yuanqing promised to keep the Motorola legacy alive.
"We plan not only to protect the Motorola brand, but make it stronger," Yuanqing said.
Motorola has struggled in recent years. Based on a 2014 Brand-Finance list of the world's most valuable companies, Motorola ranked 219th. Motorola has not been able to compete with Apple, LG or Samsung, owning just a 5.3 percent smartphone market share in November.
Lenovo will introduce the Moto brand of smartphones to countries already familiar with Lenovo. Lenovo will brand the Moto smartphones as premium devices when advertising to these countries.
"Lenovo does not have a bad brand but Motorola stands for a lot, especially in mobile," Carolina Milanesi, an analyst for Kantar WorldPanel said. "It would be a shame to move away from that."
Lenovo is the world's biggest PC maker, but it is not known for its phone business. Using the Moto name will help Lenovo get some recognition.