Lenovo acquired Motorola from Google back in 2014 and its plans for the new brand’s identity have been quite confusing. At the recently concluded MWC 2017, Lenovo finally cleared the air about its future plans for Motorola. Lenovo had earlier planned to use “Moto by Lenovo” branding, but now has decided to scrap it. The company has a new leadership team and a new plan in tow is to use the Motorola name, and also put the iconic “bat wing” logo both on the front and center as well. In an interview with CNET, Lenovo sheds light on its future plans for the year.
Motorola Chairman and President Aymar de Lencquesaing speaks on the matter by saying that the company plans to reinforce all its energy on bringing back the legacy of Motorola, the company that introduced cellphones. In its plan to do so, the company will promote its most popular product so far, the Moto Z by expanding its distribution. CNET quotes Lencquesaing as saying, “Moto Mods have exceeded our expectations” which goes on to say how the modular functionality for the Moto Z worked out unlike the failed effort with the LG G5. In line with this, Motorola also unveiled new Moto Mods featuring an extended battery, one that supports wireless charging, and also one that works as a gamepad for gaming. Amazon is also working on a Moto Mod that will come with support for its voice-activated assistant Alexa.
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In terms of reviving the Motorola brand, Lenovo will slowly promote it in all its markets. This effect will however take place depending on the markets, since their strength varies from region to region. In addition to this, Lenovo will also phase out other names it sells its smartphones under, like ZUK in its home country China as it reintroduces the Motorola brand. Lencquesaing however says that this would be a gradual shift and comments, “Everything is a journey. You don’t flip the switch and tell customers overnight”.
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Jan Huckfeldt, Lenovo’s chief marketing officer says that in the US, the company hopes that the expanded distribution and marketing will help in re-branding Motorola. Being confident about his plans Huckfeldt says, “Give us 12 months, and everyone in the US will know the new Motorola”.
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While Lenovo lays all its focus on re-branding Motorola, it will however not launch any smartwatch in the future. This comes as a surprise as Google recently launched the Android Wear 2.0 with the LG Watch Style and Watch Sport. The reason behind this comes from the fact that although the Moto 360 turned out to be a top seller, the numbers did add up to the business overall. Lencquesaing shares his thoughts on this by saying, “I don’t want to be in the business doing a product for the sake of doing a product because we need to do a follow-up.”
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