One of the most iconic and recognizable brands both in and outside of the tech world will soon disappear... at least, as it relates to mobile devices. During a recent interview at CES, Motorola COO Rick Osterloh told CNET that they'll be slowly phasing out the Motorola brand.
Moving forward, Lenovo plans to unify its two phone businesses under the Lenovo name. Specifically, it'll reserve the Moto name for its high-end product line and its own Vibe brand for entry-level devices. The publication said the Motorola brand will live on in the corporate world as a division within Lenovo.
Kantar WorldPanel analyst Carolina Milanesi said Lenovo doesn't have a bad brand but Motorola stands for a lot, especially in mobile. It would be a shame to move away from that, the analyst added.
Indeed, Motorola's name is synonymous with the mobile industry. Martin Cooper, who led the company's communications systems division in the early '70s, conceived the first portable cellular phone (not to be confused with the car phone) in 1973. Cooper was given the green light to develop the device, bringing to market the DynaTAC (DYNamic Adaptive Total Area Coverage) 8000x a decade later.
By the early 2000s, Motorola's Razr series took the mobile industry to new heights but the company lost much of its momentum and marketshare by the end of the decade. Google acquired Motorola's Mobility division in 2012 for $12.5 billion before selling it to Lenovo less than two years later for just $2.91 billion.