Motorola fans have really been taken for a rough ride over the past couple of years and they are about to embark on another ride of sorts now that Lenovo has bought them from Google. My ride started with their Droid Bionic in September 2011, with its 4.3-inch display, 1GB of RAM and the first dual-core LTE device clocked at 1GHz. Talk was that Motorola should be run out-of-town after this device was delayed month after month. Then it was riddled with random reboots a few times a day…although it was still a solid device once the bugs were worked out. Nothing much of interest came out after the Bionic and both interest and sales were waning for Motorola – then entered Google and things were about to change BIG time for the Motorola brand.
When Google purchased Motorola’s Mobility division, as well as its patents in 2011 for $12.5 billion, there was both excitement and wonder – what will Google do with Moto? We know that Google upset a couple of Android based giants that started talk of unfair advantages for Moto. Samsung increased their playing time with Tizen and LG with WebOS for fear they may have to part ways with Google and Android. But, while under Google’s guidance, Motorola released the Moto X that really changed the way we looked specifications. The Moto X was made in the USA, it was user customizable, and it ran smooth and fast on half of the specs the other flagships were pushing. They followed up with the Moto G – the device that everybody could afford, even the emerging nations – no more hand-me-downs or buying a used device when you could get a brand new Moto G for less than $200. But Google is in the advertising business, not the hardware business. They got the patents, which was their main objective, Motorola was still not making money yet, and by selling off Motorola, they would make an even playing field for the other Android manufacturers.
Enter the next new and exciting phase – a Lenovo and Motorola venture together – where Lenovo has shown from its past buyouts, it knows what to do with an acquired company to make it not only a success, but improve upon the original idea…case in point, when Lenovo bought out the formidable IBM ThinkPad series. Lenovo has already shown it can produce some beautiful smartphones on its own, and as one of the largest manufacturers in China, they have great name recognition and combining that with Motorola’s name, they believe they can do great things to spread the sales of their new smartphones around the world.
Early in January we learned that Motorola already had the sequel to the Moto X, possibly the Moto X+1. Rumors are still flying around – will they still release the new ‘X’ or usher in a host of changes and come out with their own joint effort. The latest news is that they will release their first joint effort by October/November – which would make it available for the holiday seasons. Our sources say that Zhang Hui of Lenovo of their MBG (Mobile Business Group) has stated as such, however, we do not know if it will be a device developed before or after the acquisition. There are certainly more questions than answers, but hopefully we will get more information from Lenovo as things progress.
Please hit us up on our Google+ Page what you think about the Motorola saga – are you happy that Lenovo was the buyer and what do you want in the next Motorola smartphone.