Lenovo is killing Motorola
Motorola had seen so many ups and downs. Motorola almost died after Razr’s glory days and they came back with a bang. Motorola is one of the very few brands that had very strong brand identity. This company had very healthy design refresh. The best part is that Motorola had always maintained clarity over different lineups. But now, Lenovo made a mess of everything and this time, there is no coming back! Read on to know why!
After their glory days with Razr and Rokr series of phones, Motorola almost went down when Apple iPhone came out. Their first Android phone, the Motorola Droid turned out to be a massive hit. After a few years, Motorola was in thick soup again and sold their mobile devices unit to Google. The first generation Moto X, with Moto Maker and ‘made in USA’ tag ended up to be a turning point. The brand scaled new heights with Moto G and Moto E series. Both these series of phones brought in lot of money. Things were going well and for some reason, Google decided to sell the brand to Lenovo.
When Lenovo acquired Motorola Mobility, Moto had strong lineup of devices. The differentiation between lineups was crystal clear. Moto E was for those who need a budget phone that just does basic things well. Moto G was for those who needed a true VFM Phone. Moto X was for those who needed flagship like features, with lot of customization. Then there was the Nexus 6 for those who needed pure Android experience. The Moto Z series took design to next level, with Moto Mods and superb look n feel.
Motorola would never stick to same design. Even during the time when they were really low, they made some extremely good phones. Every time they were written off, they would come back stronger, creating iconic designs. Look at Razr, Defy, Atrix, Milestone, XT810, Backflip, Aura, Pebl, A1200, Rokr E8, Rokr E6. These were truly iconic.
Lenovo had their own line up of smartphones and those lineups failed spectacularly in past three years. Instead of fixing the issues with in-house smartphone business, Lenovo decided to put their hands in Moto’s side of things. The end result turned out to be khichdi of all sorts. Moto E looks like Moto G. Moto G looks like a clone of Moto X and Moto Z has not changed the design for three years. In short, users are not sure which lineup will be good for them.
With the launch of Moto G6 series, Moto Z3 etc, Lenovo truly and certainly did to moto lineup of phones, what they did to their in-house lineup of devices. Then, they made Moto P30 that is copy of iPhone and Huawei P20. It feels like Lenovo gave their incompetent mobile division, full control of Motorola mobility. This is the only logical explanation.
All their past failures had more to do with competition suddenly surging ahead and had less to with their own design failures. Until now! Motorola Mobility is going down fast! The problem is that, this time, they may not be able to come back like they did in the past. The other Chinese brands now have very strong brand identity and have a vision. Xiaomi has a strong hold on budget segment while OnePlus, Huawei, Oppo, Vivo are making strong inroads in premium segment.
Lenovo’s smartphone division had been pathetic at best in last few years and they should stick to making black laptops for corporates. They not only ruined Moto’s hardware division, they screwed up software side of things. There were times when Motorola phone got Android update before Nexus got one. And now, Lenovo would announce availability of software update but no one would see the actual update (G5 Plus Oreo update failure). To make it worse, not even the G5S series will get Android P update.
Now, all their phones more or less look like the Moto Z. Moto’s Android phones were once known for quick OS updates and that is not happening any more now. New models are overpriced and hence VFM is not a strength anymore.
The faster Lenovo sell off Motorola Mobility, the better it is for Lenovo and Moto.
