Lenovo Backtracks ‘Moto By Lenovo’ Branding, Puts Smartwatches On Hold
Welcome back, Motorola!
It was just last year that Lenovo had announced that it planned to completely re-brand the ‘Moto’ line of devices that they’d acquired a couple years ago from Google, to ‘Moto by Lenovo’, completely dissolving Motorola name.
But with a change in leadership at Lenovo, there is word that the company might be planning to backtrack this branding strategy and let Moto remain pinned with Motorola, and retaining the “bat wing” M logo that has become the face of Moto over the years.
Additionally, word is that Lenovo might also be putting the smartwatches line (subsequent to the second-gen Moto 360) on hold for a while.
In a more surprising (but imminently intelligent) move, the Chinese smartphone manufacturer is also said to be contemplating a switch of all of its subsidiary brands to Moto’s branding. This would also include the sub-brands like Zuk. The switchover, however, is expected to be gradual.
This news comes in the back of other market decisions the company is making under the new leadership. This also includes plans of doubling down on Moto Mods, as well as bringing the Moto Z to more carriers in the US.
Coming back to rumour of Lenovo’s decision to halt any smartwatches for the time being, this ‘decision’ is said to be based on the fact that they did not sell enough smartwatches to justify the existence of the business, and in the highly dynamic smartwatch market, it indeed is hard to survive.
“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”, said Motorola Chairman and President, Aymar de Lencquesaing.
But one must be clear that this halt on smartwatches is only towards bringing out new smartwatches to the market. The company will continue to work on the device, with the hope of coming up with something that could be brought to the market at some time in the future.
Lenovo seems to be acting on the instinct to tap into the legacy of the Motorola brand, for starters. Motorola was one of the pioneers of smartphones in the last decade, and their flip phones are an image that most of us can not get out of our heads. Then things went downhill thanks to some poor decisions. Subsequently bought by Google for primarily its patents, Motorola sold off to Lenovo in 2014.
With this decision, the brand might again gain some stability, which it well deserves after having given the market the famed Moto G series of mid-range smartphones that have been rocking the market for many years.
Welcome back, Motorola!
Originally published at Chip-Monks.
