Lenovo, which acquired Motorola Mobility in 2014 announced that it will not use Motorola brand anymore for its product. The Motorola name will be replaced with "Moto by Lenovo."
In an interview with CNET, Chief Operating Officer of Motorola Mobility said, "We'll slowly phase out Motorola," he said at the CES conference in Las Vegas, "and focus on Moto."
It is an irony for iconic brand, Motorola, that invent a wireless and cellular technology and mobile phone to step down from the market it created. DynaTac is the first mobile device in the world and Motorola made it in 1983. The iconic moment when Neil Armstrong landed on the moon in 1969 and said his famous quote, "one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind" was said over a Motorola wireless transceiver to the earth.
AMotorola sold its cellular infrastructure businesss to Nokia Siemens in 2010, and a year after the company split into two separate companies: Motorola Mobility became the producer of mobile device and Motorola Solutions as the radio and telecommunication service provider. Both companies are a publicly traded companies,
Google announced its intention to purchase Motorola Mobility in August 2011. After a long legal process, in 2012 Google bought the Motorola Mobility and acquired Motorola patent portfolios in wireless technology. Two years later, Google sold Motorola Mobility to Lenovo for $2.9 billion. Soon after, Motorola Mobility announce its new flagship Android phone, Moto X.
Lenovo, as the CEO Yang Yuanqing said after the purchase that he cherished Motorola brand and will make it stronger. On the other hand, Lenovo need to have a single umbrella brand for its product. Therefore, Lenovo still use the "M" logo for its Moto product line, as the brand is a well-respected brand in North and South America.
However some analyst regret the decision. "Lenovo does not have a bad brand but Motorola stands for a lot, especially in mobile," said Carolina Milanesi, an analyst for Kantar WorldPanel. "It would be a shame to move away from that."
PC Magazine also remember Motorola as the first company on the planet to demonstrate a prototype cellular phone back in 1973. It was also the first to sell an actual cellular phone with its DynaTac 800X.
According to Venture Beat, Motorola phone is currently sold primarily in North and South America, along with Europe. While Lenovo's brand are most widely available in Asian nations. The Motorola brand is still be used in organizational capacity as the name of the Lenovo subsidiary.
As the time moves on, the business landscape also changes. Motorola, as the inventor of wireless technology and mobile phone is now will be replaced by "Moto by Lenovo."
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