Lenovo to phase out Motorola brand in favour of a unified phone division

Motorola branding will disappear from phones this year as Lenovo looks to unify their phone division under the Lenovo name.

In an interview with C-Net, CEO of Motorola, Rick Osterloh said ‘We’ll slowly phase out Motorola, and focus on Moto’. The Motorola name will live on, though only internally with Lenovo phasing out the Motorola name publicly and moving to a naming strategy of ‘Moto by Lenovo’. The models we’ve all come to know and love, such as the Moto X, Moto G and Moto E are being retained under the plan, as is the iconic batwing Motorola logo, though the Lenovo logo would also be featured on the phones.

This branding change will most likely include the Moto accessory line which includes the Moto 360 and Moto 360 sports, as well as other Moto devices, but Osterloh did not specifically mention them.

The move will see a unification of the Motorola and Lenovo phone divisions, with Lenovo operating their own relatively successful phone brands with the Vibe handsets being introduced into markets which previously had only seen Motorola phones before, and vice-versa with Moto handsets being introduced as a ‘premium’ option.

All this is possibly good news for Australia, with Motorola struggling to get stock into our retail markets over the last couple of years. With Lenovo in charge of distribution, this could improve matters. Exactly how long this will take, and when we will see our first Moto by Lenovo phone or Vibe series phone here in Australia isn’t clear, but it’s interesting times ahead for Lenovo and Motorola.