There was once a time where the brand Motorola was inextricably tied to the concept of the mobile phone.
It probably helps that Motorola actually invented the cell phone. However, that time is apparently up, as the Motorola branding will reportedly be phased out in 2016.
This report comes courtesy of an exclusive interview held by CNet with Motorola Chief Operating Officer Rick Osterloh at CES 2016. It’s worth noting that the Motorola phone business is actually owned wholesale by Lenovo, which is likely not something a lot of regular folks realize. One doesn’t really associate one with the other — and that’s partly because Motorola Mobility’s changed hands twice in the past five years. Google bought the phone business in 2012, and Lenovo bought it from Google in 2014.
"We'll slowly phase out Motorola," CNet reports Osterloh as saying during their interview, "and focus on Moto."
The branding will be changed to Moto by Lenovo, seemingly in an effort to tie the latter to the former more strongly. Going forward, Lenovo will reportedly focus on the Moto for high-end products and Vibe for budget ones.
It’s also worth noting that this affects consumer-facing phones and not the actual organization. Osterloh, for example, will remain Motorola Chief Operating Officer rather than, say, Moto or Vibe Chief Operating Officer. The classic winged M logo will remain as well — for now. There’s no telling what might be in the cards this time 2017.
UPDATE (10:13AM 1/8): A Motorola spokesperson has sent along a statement about this report, which reads as follows:
"Motorola Mobility continues to exist as a Lenovo company and is the engineering and design engine for all of our mobile products. However, for our product branding we will utilize a dual brand strategy across smartphone and wearables going forward using Moto and Vibe globally. "Motorola" hasn't been used on our products since the launch of the original Moto X in 2013."
Source: CNet
Photo: Tinanas | Flickr
