Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, multiple smartphone brands in India are struggling with various issues. As of right now, most production lines in the country have been shut down due to a Government mandated lockdown, while offline stores that are deemed non-essential are also to remain closed. Thus, OEMs are now reducing their offline workers while also looking for rent waivers.

Since the physical stores cannot remain open and bring in no value or sales. Smart brands are downsizing their employees that act as in-store promoters or salespersons, and are also looking into getting waivers for the rent from landowners of their stores. Xiaomi is one such company that is seeking for a waiver of at least three months.

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On the other hand, companies like HMD Global and Lenovo–Motorola are now reducing the number of offline workers for their stores and are also cutting incentives for retailers. According to official announcements, these stores are sitting on inventory and will likely not be making any sales for at least a whole quarter.

For those unaware, a new strand of Coronavirus had been discovered in China. Since then, the viral infection has spread to upwards of 170 countries and has been recognized as a global pandemic. It is highly infectious with a number of confirmed cases has crossed a million a few days ago. Thus, various governments like India are taking drastic measures and lockdowns to help curb the infection spreading any further.

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Many smartphone brands, especially China-based manufacturers, have adopted the strategy of launching smartphone sub-brands to target different segments of the market. Now, it seems that Lenovo is also all set to jump the bandwagon.

A new Weibo account has surfaced with the name “Lemeng Mobile” which was also shared with the account of Lenovo Mobile on Weibo. Further, information on the new brand’s Weibo account reveals that it is a part of Beijing Lenovo Group, confirming that the Lemeng Mobile is a sub-brand of Lenovo Mobile.

Today, the microblogging account of Lemeng Mobile posted that the company will be holding a meeting at Lenovo’s Beijing headquarters park to decide about the brand’s future going forward. If the brand is actually getting launched, it remains to be seen how it will distinguish itself from devices from Lenovo.

However, this is not a new brand coming out of Lenovo. The brand Lemeng Mobile previously existed and was focused on making music-focused phones. However, the brand was discontinued a few years ago and now it seems that Lenovo is rebooting the same brand.

Earlier this year, Xiaomi’s Redmi brand split from the parent company to work as an independent brand. After splitting, it launched the Redmi Note 7 smartphone, which has been well-received by the users. It is all set to launch Redmi Note 7 Pro and has recently launched Redmi Go — an Android Go-powered phone.

Last year, Oppo’s sub-brand Realme also split from the parent company and has taken the Indian budget smartphone market by storm. Within a year of its launch, the brand has established its presence in seven countries — India, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Phillippines, and Egypt. So far, the company has launched five smartphones and a couple of accessories and lifestyle products.

Huawei, which is currently the No. 2 smartphone brand in the world, also has a sub-brand named Honor, which is focused on the budget smartphones with value-for-money offerings while the Huawei brand is focused on offering high-end premium smartphones.

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While the company is selling smartphones under its Lenovo brand, the China-based company also owns Motorola Mobility, which is acquired in 2014 from Google for $2.91 billion in order to break into the US and UK markets.

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