Lenovo has officially discontinued its Vibe range of mobiles in India. The company’s Moto devices are going to fill the gap. This is actually a part of the major overhaul of Lenovo’s smartphone lineup. The renowned PC-maker intends to replace its smartphone series with its recently purchased Motorola‘s Mobility division. While Lenovo-branded smartphones are going to disappear from the international markets, it won’t completely die out here, in India.
This strategy was disclosed to India Today by Jan Huckfeldt, the Vice President of Global Marketing and Communications of Lenovo Mobile Group and Motorola. He clarified that Lenovo wants to put an end to its dual brand existence in the smartphone industry.
Mr. Huckfeldt said,
“Going forward, in most global markets we will only launch Moto-branded phones.”
This clearly indicates that Lenovo wants to use the brand name of Motorola to gain more market share. We all know that Moto is a lot more familiar to international smartphone users, where Lenovo is popular as a PC company.
The latest move of Lenovo will pull the plug on the Vibe series or the ZUK lineup. However, India will be an exception. Here, both Lenovo and Motorola will continue to coexist until further notice. The number of Lenovo handsets will be limited though.
Mr. Huckfeldt further added,
“In India, we have seen that the two brands are doing well. Although we will not launch any Vibe phones anymore, in India there will be some Lenovo-branded phones. In India, we have seen that there is no cannibalisation (between the Moto and Lenovo phones) and that the two brands complement each other.”
This means that the availability of Lenovo K-series devices will not be affected and we might even see new launches in the K lineup. However, Lenovo will remain restricted to budget to midrange handsets while the premium range would be dominated by Motorola.
