Lenovo Wants to Kill the Motorola Brand (Slowly) Michael Kwan January 8, 2016 News Way back in a simpler time when we didn’t have to worry about gigahertz and LTEs, there was really only one name in the world of cellular phones and that was the Motorola brand. From the “Zack Morris” to the iconic StarTAC, it was the name in the mobile game. But soon, company owner Lenovo will be giving the Motorola brand a slow (thought not necessarily painful) death, because they’re going to “phase out” the name. After Lenovo bought Motorola Mobility for almost $3 billion two years ago, we had assumed that part of the appeal was retaining the legacy of the name. In that time, while Motorola has quite risen all the way back to the top, it has won over many old and new hearts with its Moto 360, Moto G, and Moto X lines, along with being the company behind 2014’s Nexus 6 from Google. During yesterday’s press conference at CES, Motorola COO Rick Osterloh indicated that the Motorola brand was on its way out, but they’re going to “focus on Moto.” What does this mean exactly? The company vision isn’t taking on a completely new turn. It’s just that what we might know now as the Motorola Moto X Pure could be followed up by the Lenovo Moto X Pure 2 instead. From what I can gather, they’re not going to start naming their devices the Leno G and the Leno 360. And that “batwing” M logo that we’ve seen for so many years? That’s not going anywhere either. The goal, it seems, is to convert some fans of the Motorola brand into supporters of the Lenovo brand too. I imagine the average mainstream consumer doesn’t even know that Motorola Mobility is owned by Lenovo, so this could be an effective foot in the door to convince people to buy Lenovo laptops, tablets and other products too. Via CNET Share This With The World!
