One of the most famous brand names in mobile is to disappear in 2016 as Motorola finally bids farewell to an industry it helped build.
The Motorola name, which has adorned the iconic Razr flip-phone and spawned the famous ‘Hello Moto’ tagline, will no longer be used for smartphones or other devices as its parent company Lenovo looks like unite its mobile division under a single banner.
Both brands have co-existed since Lenovo bought Motorola from Google back in January 2014.
“We’ll slowly phase out Motorola and focus on Moto,” Motorola chief operating officer Rick Osterloh said in an exclusive interview Thursday at the CES conference in Las Vegas, CNET reported.
However the Motorola name will live on within Lenovo, becoming the corporate name for the division for new devices.
The current M logo used on these devices will continue to appear on future releases, but the name behind the products will change to “Moto by Lenovo”
Lenovo is the world’s largest PC maker, but has struggled to gain much traction in the mobile market outside China. Last August, the company announced that it would merge its existing Lenovo Mobile operations into Motorola Mobility, more than 18 months after it bought the company – minus patents and Project Ara – for £1.76 billion back in January 2014.
Under the restructuring, all Lenovo Mobile employees joined Motorola, with the latter taking over all future design responsibilities – which presumably will be rolled again into the new operation. Google had only bought Motorola Mobility two years earlier, with the Motorola name being removed from devices in this generation back in 2013.
What do you remember about the smartphones of 2015? Try our quiz!
Liverpool's Alder Hey children's hospital turns away electric car from car park due to 'fire…
German foreign minister warns Russia will face consequences for “absolutely intolerable” cyberattack on ruling party,…
Google is reportedly laying off at least 200 staff from its “Core” organisation, including key…
Investor appeasement? Apple unveils huge $110 billion share buyback program, as sales of iPhone decline…
Tesla retreats from pioneering gigacasting manufacturing process, amid cost cutting and challenges at EV giant
No skynet please. After the US, UK and France pledge human only control of nuclear…