Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想) will start integrating its smartphone business in individual markets this year by focusing on the Motorola Moto brand, a company official said yesterday.
“We have been preparing for this for two years. This year will mark the beginning of the ‘one-brand’ integration,” Lenovo Asia-Pacific mobile director William Tsai (蔡漢威), who oversees the Chinese company’s smartphone business in Asia excluding China, told a news conference in Taipei.
Lenovo acquired Motorola Mobility from Google in 2014 for US$2.91 billion. The transaction was completed in October 2015.
Lenovo president and chief executive officer Yang Yuanqing (楊元慶) in November last year said that the company planned to incorporate its two smartphone brands — with Lenovo focusing on mid to low-range devices and Moto focusing on mid to high-range models — into a single brand, without elaborating on the plan’s timing.
Tsai declined to disclose an exact timetable for the integration, saying that the company will make a formal announcement later this year, after completing internal personnel adjustments last year.
“This year, we will focus on communicating with consumers in each market,” he said.
Tsai said markets that have stronger brand awareness of Moto than Lenovo, such as Taiwan, will be easier and faster for the company to complete the integration.
The company plans to set aside marketing resources for Moto smartphones in Taiwan this year, Tsai said, adding that no new Lenovo handsets will be released in the nation.
However, it will be more challenging to integrate the brands in markets such as India, as Lenovo and Moto are almost equally popular among consumers there, Tsai said.
According to International Data Corp figures, Lenovo, including the Moto brand, was the third-largest smartphone vendor in India with 9.9 percent market share last quarter.
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