Lenovo is phasing out the “motorola” brand, but keeps “moto” a division under the company

Lenovo acquired Motorola in late 2014 from Google and from there, the company said it would protect the brand name and even make it stronger than it did but as time changes for just a short while so that the company’s position on maintaining the brand itself. Some says it’s inevitable, and after a year under Lenovo, the motorola name that we’ve known for so many years will have to be put aside to give way for the parent company’s name.

“We’ll slowly phase out Motorola,” said Motorola Chief Operating Officer Rick Osterloh during an interview at CES 2016. Motorola mobility will be taking over the mobile business of Lenovo from here onwards and will now market both motorola’s existing devices together with Lenovo’s on the same market under the Lenovo brand name. However, remnants of the motorola brand will eventually live on with moto, a common household name which became popular at the start of the century.

For Lenovo, the Moto brand will become a series of Lenovo devices for the mid-end to high-end markets while the company’s existing Vibe series will serve the entry-level to mid-range segments. The new marketing strategy will also expose each brand and series to markets where one brand is stronger than the other. For example, Lenovo is a well-known brand here in Asia but not in the US, by distributing devices and each series side-by-side, Lenovo can happily introduce Vibe devices in the US together moto devices while doing the other way around here in Asia.

Lenovo will also use the Lenovo logo on future Moto devices but will still sport the iconic batwing-like logo of motorola so the motorola spirit will live on those future moto devices and signals motorola fans and enthusiasts that the Moto devices they loved still lives with these future devices.