Bid adieu to Motorola: Lenovo to phase out brand name and call it 'Moto by Lenovo'

Lenovo, which purchased Motorola from Google in 2014 will now be reportedly ditching the term ‘Motorola’ when it comes to smartphones, and it will instead continue as a division under Lenovo. All the new devices will eventually make a transition to ‘Moto’ branding, not ‘Motorola.’ In an exclusive interview with  CNET, Motorola Chief Operating Officer Rick Osterloh said, “We’ll slowly phase out Motorola and focus on Moto.” This does not imply that Motorola will be gone for good but instead, the company will attach the ‘Moto for Lenovo’ label on its high-end smartphones and will in turn, unify its budget smartphones under its ‘Vibe’ brand respectively. In addition, Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing said, “It’s our treasure. We plan to not only protect the Motorola brand, but make it stronger.” According to the report, the decision is likely a play to use the Moto lineup, which is popular with Android enthusiasts, to get people more acquainted with the Lenovo brand. Lenovo completed the Motorola acquisition at $2.91 billion. Google had earlier acquired the iconic smartphone brand and its prized patent portfolio in 2012 for $12.5 billion but struggled to reverse Motorola’s years-long decline. Last month, Motorola had announced discounts through ‘Big app sales days’ via Flipkart. The company was offering many offers to users due to the festive season with the ‘Power to Choose’ deals for the entire range of devices.