ZUK Mobile will be shut down short of its second anniversary, a recent report suggests. Well-known analyst Pan Jiutang who shared the information on Weibo, claims that the company was a success and managed to create a large fan base around its products during its brief time as a phone manufacturer, but despite its independent status, ZUK Mobile will soon be absorbed by its parent company Lenovo, which disclosed its intentions of integrating all of its phone brands under the Moto umbrella a few months back.
Lenovo’s decision is said to have stemmed from the challenges it was facing with Motorola Mobility. The new plan is to attempt to better capitalize on the Motorola’s name as the company wants to feature the Moto branding on all of its future handsets, the source said. The Vibe family is expected to be first in line to get the new treatment, but it appears Lenovo’s vision for the future also includes integrating ZUK into this joint entity as well. This report surfaced shortly after Lenovo’s VP Alex Chen Yu revealed that select upcoming Moto devices might arrive with ZUK’s ZUI onboard.
While ZUK’s software may appear on future Chinese Moto devices, it’s currently unlikely that the European and U.S. variants of the devices will get a taste of the ZUI launcher, industry watchers believe. According to recent reports, ZUK’s co-founder Chen Xudong will return to Lenovo’s PC business unit, while Lenovo’s current Senior VP and Co-President of Mobile Business, Qiao Jian will be appointed as the head of Lenovo Mobile China following the closure of ZUK. In less than two years on the market, ZUK manufactured numerous devices, including the ZUK Z1, ZUK Z2 and the ZUK Edge, all of which were well-received by consumers in Asia. Even if the aforementioned report is accurate, it’s currently unclear when exactly is Lenovo planning to shut down ZUK, i.e. whether the company’s subsidiary will still manage to release some new devices like the ZUK Edge 2 Special Edition whose render surfaced online in February. Regardless, an update on the situation will likely follow later this year.