LENOVO has officially brought back the Motorola brand (rebranded now as “Moto”) to the market, introducing a model in every price-point segment, due to a healthy demand in the Philippines in the smartphone category.
Danny Li, mobile business group director for Asia-Pacific sales for Lenovo, said the reentry into the competitive mobile-phone segment in the Philippines is in line with their ambition to be among the most recognized smartphone makers globally.
“Our ambition is to be in the top 3 in smartphones. We’re No. 5 or 6 currently. We briefly touched the top 3 last year,” Li told reporters during a press briefing this week.
Lenovo bought the Motorola mobility smartphone business from Google in 2014, and has been trying to leverage the name’s popularity in the Western markets ever since.
Its most iconic mobile-phone offering before its reintroduction was the popular Motorola Razr in the early 2000s, which was then owned by Motorola Inc.
In terms of business units, Lenovo is banking on the smartphone segment to boost its ranking. The smartphone segment has outpaced its PC business unit in growth and stands toe-to-toe with Lenovo’s data-center solutions unit.
The Philippines is a logical choice for the mobile brand as it has been hailed by the International Data Corp. this year as the fastest-growing smartphone market in Southeast Asia.
As a testament to this growth, Li said the Philippines is the first market in Southeast Asia where its flagship devices, Moto Z and Moto Z Play, have been launched.
Lenovo is banking on the Moto brand to fuel growth in the smartphone category, having a contender in each of the market segment.
It unveiled three smartphone series in the Philippines this week: Moto Z + Moto Mods Family for the premium market, the Moto G for the mid and the Moto E in the entry-level space.
It has tied up with Smart and Globe to offer the phones. Globe subscribers can avail themselves of the Moto Z and Moto Z Play, while Smart is exclusively carrying Moto G4 Play.