Sketches depicting a total of eight unannounced Motorola smartphones have been spotted by LetsGoDigital in a patent application reportedly submitted by its parent company Lenovo to the World Intellectual Property Office this week. Two models seem to resemble the Moto G7 and G7 Plus which were officially announced early February, but the remaining six are new yet share a similar design language.
So far Motorola’s 2019 smartphone lineup consists only of four Moto G7 variants, but Lenovo’s subsidiary is expected to introduce new models across all the other market segments in the coming months. The 2019 lineup is likely to include a new Moto E, Moto C, Moto X, and Moto Z model, covering the low-end, mid-range and upper mid-range, as well as high-end price points, respectively.
The sketches found recently in the patent application might correspond to some of these upcoming devices. “Model G” as labeled by LetsGoDigital could be a new Moto E, given that it’s the only device featuring a single rear-facing camera.
All the other patented designs employ two rear-facing cameras, some of which are embedded in a circular housing similar to the Moto G7. As seen in the image gallery below, two other models have horizontally-aligned dual cameras in the upper-left corner of the back panel, while the final sketch labeled as “Model E” by the source (not to be confused with the Moto E) has a vertically-aligned dual shooter with an LED flash in-between the two sensors.
The devices share a couple of common characteristics, namely the drop-shaped display notch and a dimple on the back panel where the Motorola logo usually resides on top of the rear-mounted fingerprint scanner. None of these variants have a rectangular display notch like the Moto G7 Play and Moto G7 Power do.
But there is no guarantee that the circular cutouts found on the back of all of these unannounced smartphones will embed a fingerprint scanner. The upcoming Moto Z, in particular, is expected to embed a fingerprint sensor into the display, so in some situations, the rear dimple might serve only as a location for the Moto branding.
At the moment there’s no official information as to when Motorola might expand its 2019 portfolio with additional models, but the Moto G7 and its three variants have already been released in Mexico and Brazil last month. They are expected to reach more markets including the U.S. this spring, possibly by the end of March.
Motorola’s global market share over the past year seems largely unchanged – according to Statista. The OEM’s highest point over the past 12 months was reached in November 2018 when it managed to secure 3.02-percent of the market. It declined slightly over the past several months, and in February 2019 Motorola secured 2.77-percent of the mobile market space. This still represents a 0.18-percent increase compared to February 2018.
Comparatively, the OEM secured 3.72-percent of the U.S. market last month, up from 3.47-percent a year ago. It remains to be seen whether this year’s models will help Motorola boost its sales figures or if the OEM will continue to maintain a steady pace as it has done over the past 12 months.
