Lenovo stops producing smartphones. Lenovo releases a “farewell” smartphone. Lenovo is dropping its phone brand

All Lenovo smartphones will be sold under the Lenovo moto brand, the production of smartphones under other names (Vibe, Motorola) will be stopped, Vedomosti reports, citing Alexey Klochkov, executive director of Lenovo’s mobile division in the Eastern Europe region.

Lenovo bought Motorola Mobility from Google for $2.91 billion in 2014. According to Gartner, at the moment the combined company is not among the top five global leaders in smartphone shipments (3rd, 4th and 5th places are occupied by other Chinese companies - Huawei, Oppo and BBK).

Now the business of Lenovo’s mobile division is being integrated with Motorola, a joint development model is being developed, and the difficulties that inevitably accompany integration processes could affect sales, Klochkov said in the fall of 2016.

Lenovo's mobile division is now unprofitable, mainly because the Chinese company has failed to integrate Motorola's mobile business, notes Eldar Murtazin, a leading analyst at Mobile Research Group.

A good or bad idea?

Combining two brands is not a very good idea, Murtazin believes: Motorola fans will not buy these devices because they are not “real” Motorola, and Lenovo devices are attractive not because of the brand, but because of the price-quality ratio, Murtazin believes. At the same time, Lenovo’s attempts to promote the Motorola brand in Russia have shown that it has already been completely forgotten, he adds.

“The Motorola company is remembered in Russia. Using the moto brand can bring Lenovo additional sales and customer loyalty,” predicts Euroset President Alexander Malis.

The appearance of smartphones under the Lenovo moto brand instead of Motorola devices is unlikely to have any impact on sales of Lenovo gadgets, says an employee of another retailer. The buyer of smartphones with the Lenovo or Lenovo moto brands will be more interested in the functionality of the phone and its price, rather than the name, says Vedomosti’s interlocutor.

All Lenovo smartphones will be sold under the Lenovo moto brand, the production of smartphones under other names (Vibe, Motorola, etc.) will be stopped, Alexey Klochkov, executive director of Lenovo’s mobile division in the Eastern Europe region, told Vedomosti. New smartphones under the Lenovo moto brand will be presented on February 26, he says.

Lenovo bought Motorola Mobility from Google for $2.91 billion in 2014. According to Gartner, the combined company is not among the top five global leaders in smartphone shipments (3rd, 4th and 5th places are occupied by other Chinese companies - Huawei, Oppo and BBK) . From Lenovo materials reviewed by Vedomosti, it follows that the company takes 4th place in the global smartphone market (not counting China).

In Russia, Lenovo is in 3rd place at the end of 2016 (according to MTS): Lenovo’s share (without Motorola) in the Russian smartphone market was just over 8% in terms of the number of devices sold. The company was second only to Samsung (21.6% of smartphone sales in Russia) and Apple (11.1%). According to the company, a partner of several cellular retailers, in December 2016, Lenovo devices occupied 7.5% of the Russian smartphone market in units, while devices under the Motorola brand accounted for just over 0.3%.

Over the year, Lenovo's share in Russia decreased by 2.2 percentage points, and it lost 2nd place in the market to Apple. A person close to Lenovo explained to Vedomosti the decrease in market share by Lenovo's purchase of Motorola. Now the business of Lenovo's mobile division is being integrated with Motorola, a joint development model is being developed, and the difficulties that inevitably accompany integration processes could affect sales, he said in the fall of 2016. The range of new Lenovo and Motorola devices is still small, hence the low demand for these products, he noted.

Lenovo's mobile division is now unprofitable, mainly because the Chinese company has failed to integrate Motorola's mobile business, notes Eldar Murtazin, a leading analyst at Mobile Research Group.

Moderate growth

Just over 431.5 million smartphones were shipped to the global market in the fourth quarter of 2016, according to Gartner. This is 7% more than a year earlier.

Own product brands have long existed for Lenovo laptop lineups (Yoga, ThinkPad), but smartphones did not have such a common name - Lenovo moto will fill this gap, notes Klochkov.

Combining two brands is not a very good idea, Murtazin believes: Motorola fans will not buy these devices because they are not “real” Motorola, and Lenovo devices are attractive not because of the brand, but because of the price-quality ratio, Murtazin believes. At the same time, Lenovo’s attempts to promote the Motorola brand in Russia have shown that it has already been completely forgotten, he adds.

Oleg Beriev, president of the Mildberry branding agency, explains the adoption of moto as a brand for Lenovo smartphones by a peculiar search for identity, characteristic of most Chinese companies operating in the international market. This is an attempt to blur Chinese roots and position Lenovo in the smartphone market as an international company, he argues.

“The Motorola company is remembered in Russia. Using the moto brand can bring Lenovo additional sales and customer loyalty,” predicts Euroset President Alexander Malis.

The appearance of smartphones under the Lenovo moto brand instead of Motorola devices is unlikely to have any impact on sales of Lenovo gadgets, says an employee of another retailer. The buyer of smartphones with the Lenovo or Lenovo moto brands will be more interested in the functionality of the phone and its price, rather than the name, says Vedomosti’s interlocutor.

03.11.2016, Thu, 15:57, Moscow time , Text: Valeria Shmyrova

Lenovo will stop producing smartphones under its brand, replacing it with the Moto logo. The reason is the success of the modular Moto Z series, which had a positive impact on the results of the past quarter. The brand’s “parting gift” will be the Lenovo P2 smartphone.

Lenovo is dropping its phone brand

Lenovo will no longer produce smartphones under its own brand, replacing it with the Moto logo. Thus, the LenovoP2, which will be launched by the company in China on November 8, 2016 along with MotoM, will be the latest Lenovo smartphone. Information about this appeared on the Gizmochina resource.

The company's decision was apparently influenced by the success of the Moto G4 and Moto Z, launched in May and June 2016, respectively. Since their launch, sales of Lenovo smartphones have increased by 40%, according to the company.

Lenovo reports that it has currently sold 1 million Moto Z series devices. In 12 months from the date of release, the company plans to sell 3 million smartphones in this series. The reason for the popularity of Moto Z is Moto Mods, which allow you to attach a camera, speaker, projector or additional battery to your smartphone.

Smartphone sales in the last quarter

In total, Lenovo shipped approximately 14 million phones in the fiscal second quarter ended September 30, 2016. The mobile division's revenue amounted to $2 billion, which is 12% less than last year, but 20% more than in the first quarter.

Lenovo will cease to be a phone brand

The brand's total revenue for the quarter reached $11.2 billion, down 8% from last year but up 12% from the previous quarter. The quarterly growth is the result of successes in the mobile division, particularly sales of the Moto Z series. This offsets the fact that the brand's computer sales fell 3.2% year-on-year and tablet sales fell 14.7%.

"Parting gift" Lenovo P2

According to preliminary data, Lenovo P2 has a 5.5″ diagonal screen with a resolution of 1920×1080 pixels (Full HD). The AMOLED matrix, which the company rarely uses in its devices, should provide high contrast and a wide viewing angle.

The device is based on an 8-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor with a frequency of up to 2 GHz. The amount of RAM is 3 GB, permanent memory is 32 GB with the ability to increase it up to 128 GB using a memory card.

The resolution of the main and front cameras is 13 MP and 5 MP, respectively. The main camera offers autofocus, optical stabilization systems and dual flash. The dimensions of the smartphone are 153 mm × 76 mm × 8.5 mm and weighs 177 grams.

In addition to Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, the device supports NFC near-field communication. In addition, the manufacturer promises support not only for GPS, but also for GLONASS, as well as the Chinese BDS positioning system.

One of the main advantages of the model is the 5100 mAh battery. The manufacturer claims that the smartphone will be able to work without recharging for up to 3 days. TurboPower fast charging mode allows you to charge it for 10 hours in 15 minutes.

Sales of Lenovo P2 will start at the end of autumn, its price in Russia could be about p 25 thousand.

Lenovo and Motorola

Lenovo agreed on Motorola from Google in January 2014. The deal was worth $2.91 billion. As a result, Motorola became a subsidiary of Lenovo. At the time of the acquisition, the company had about 3.5 thousand employees, 2.8 thousand of them in the United States, where its headquarters remained in Chicago.

In August 2015, information appeared that Lenovo was gradually abandoning the production of phones under its logo, since the Motorola brand was stronger.

In September 2016, Lenovo announced 1,100 employees, 2% of its global workforce. Mostly employees of the Motorola Mobility division were laid off, in particular, more than 700 employees of the Chicago office.