Before Apple and Samsung came at the forefront of mobile technology, there were other players that used to compete in the industry. They failed to remain afloat, however, with the rise of touchscreens and selfies.
Remember Motorola? Yes, one of those huge, black mobile phones that was all the rage before. Gone are those phones, but the company is much alive and suddenly kicking.
Motorola is so back with a £135 ($225) Moto G handset that boosted their presence and sales these days. From zero percent share of the smartphone market in Great Britain, the Moto G took significant steps up in the last six months, based on latest research.
"Motorola was nowhere in Europe before the Moto G launched in November last year, but the new model has since boosted the manufacturer to six percent of British sales," said strategic insight director Dominic Sunnebo of Kantar Worldpanel, a company of experts in consumer knowledge and insights.
The said device has been launched at selected markets that include the UK. At that time, the company was still an arm of Google. Now, it has become an extension of Lenovo.
Kantar's latest data on smartphone sales show that Moto G acquired a particular consumer profile in the country. Demographic of owners is from 16 to 24 years old, of which 83 percent are male. In general, these owners come from the lower income bracket with 40 percent of them earning under £20,000 ($33,340). It also showed that about 48 percent of the device's sales were through online.
"It highlights the speed at which a quality budget phone can disrupt a market. The same pattern can be seen in France with Wiko, which has 8.3 percent share, and Xiaomi in China with 18.5 percent," Sunnebo also said.
Sunnebo said that consumers now are far more tech-savvy than before and that these people have progressively relied on online reviews and handset price in their decision-making rather than suggestions from phone stores.
Reviews in fact were mostly good. The Moto G has been described as an affordable device with first-rate features - and this has given a boost in the almost-forgotten brand and attracted some customers from leading brands.
"With virtually no existing customers to sell to in Britain, the Moto G has stolen significant numbers of low-mid end customers from Samsung and Nokia Lumia," Sunnebo also disclosed.
Kantar also shares that the momentum of Android phones has returned in the US, with shares up 3.9 percent as opposed to 2013. Meanwhile, identified as the fastest growing Android brand is LG, with US market share topping at 8 percent, thus making it the third largest manufacturer in sales.
Android OS leads the industry in the five major markets in Europe, namely France, UK, Spain, Germany and Italy, putting Apple's iOS in second place.
