In November 2016, a Chinese report claimed that Lenovo would be only selling Moto branded smartphones. In other world, it won’t be selling phones with Lenovo branding. This news had surfaced when the company’s financial results were not impressive. Today, Yang Yuanqing, the Lenovo Group chariman and chief executive, said to Reuters that the Lenovo brand for smartphones will never be phased out.
According to Yang, even though the company is restructuring its business in China, its mobile business will not be affected in the country. The company has already encountered a widening loss after releasing smartphones with Lenovo and Moto branding. However, the company still wants to maintain dual-brand strategy. In some markets, Lenovo is selling smartphones with both branding. However, in other markets, it is only selling Lenovo or Moto phones.
The mobile business generates around 18 percent revenue for Lenovo as it achieves more revenue from its PC business. The mobile division has encountered a huge loss of $566 million. In the previous year, it met with a loss of $469 million. Its data center group has also accounted a loss of $343 million. Wong Wai Ming, Lenovo CFO said that the smartphone and data center businesses is different from PC business. Hence, the company will need more time to understand the business. The CFO added that its smartphone and server business will improve in the near future.
In the previous week, Yang posted on Weibo that China consumers are more interested in smart devices. Hence, the Chinese firm will be soon restructuring its Chinese business. The mobile division which was previously headed by Liu Jun will be joining as the president for Lenovo China and he will be also leading the consumer division for the company. He also claimed that Lenovo will be releasing more products that will cater to the consumers in China.
A leaked shot coming from a recently held Lenovo conference clearly shows that the Chinese company will be launching more Moto branded phones this year. It has already launched Moto C and Moto C Plus and soon it will be launching other smartphones such as Moto Z2, Moto Z2 Force, Moto Z2 Play, Moto E4, Moto E4 Plus and Moto X4. Its nearing first half of the year and the company has not launched a Lenovo branded phone so far.
(source)
