[UPDATED] Motorola to be rebranded as ‘Moto by Lenovo’

Chinese tech giant, Lenovo bought Motorola Mobility from Google in 2014. Lenovo is unifying the two smartphone businesses under one name. The Moto brand name will be used for high-end smartphones. The Vibe brand will be used for its budget smartphones. So technically Moto will live, but ‘rola’ will die. In an Interview with CNET, Motorola Chief Operating Officer Rick Osterloh said, “We'll slowly phase out Motorola and focus on Moto”. 

Motorola was the company that pioneered the smartphone business and the company was purchased by Google in 2011. In an official statement released to 9to5 Google, Motorola said, “Motorola Mobility continues to exist as a Lenovo company and is the engineering and design engine for all of our mobile products. However, for our product branding we will utilize a dual brand strategy across smartphone and wearables going forward using Moto and Vibe globally. “Motorola” hasn’t been used on our products since the launch of the original Moto X in 2013.”

It will be sad to see the name Motorola drift into history, but hey, we will still see the launch of the Next generation Moto X, Moto Play, Moto G smartphones and more. In the recent past we have seen a number of smartphones launch in India by Motorola including the Moto G Turbo, Moto X Style, and more. Lenovo on the other hand has launched smartphones like the Lenovo Vibe P1, Vibe S1 and more. The company also announced the launch of the Lenovo K4 Note in India. It would be an understatement to call the K4 Note one of the most anticipated smartphones in India. 

In its lifetime, Motorola has announced a number of interesting smartphones. One of my personal favorites has to be the Moto Razr. The flip phone was not only one of the sleekest and slimmest smartphone around, but also boasted of iTunes support. One of the few devices to have iTunes sync in an era dominated by Apple’s closed ecosystem.

UPDATE: On its latest blog post, Motorola has clarified its stance on the change of brands. Wholly owned by Lenovo, the smartphone segment will now feature two separate divisions — Moto and Vibe. Motorola will remain in charge of engineering, design and manufacturing behind its smartphones and wearables. Smartphones and wearables under the 'Moto' brand will also retain Motorola's iconic batwing logo. The decision of changing the brand name is a part of Lenovo and Motorola's new marketing strategy. To quote Motorola, "This latest move is all about where we focus our brand marketing efforts in the future. That will be on our two hero smartphone brands: Moto and Vibe, with the Lenovo corporate brand tying all of our consumer and commercial products together more holistically."

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Sameer Mitha

Sameer Mitha lives for gaming and technology is his muse. When he isn’t busy playing with gadgets or video games he delves into the world of fantasy novels. View Full Profile