When Lenovo acquired Motorola Mobility, reports surfaced that the parent company will be phasing out flagships with the Moto brand. However, while this is technically true, Lenovo went on to say that on the contrary, the Moto iterations, particularly the successful ones, will still continue.
For 2016, Lenovo also plans to out Moto-branded phones. Although the question of which Moto lineups Lenovo plans to continue remains unanswered, the company did say that two key aspects will hold true for the new Moto variants – all of them will have minimum display dimensions of at least 5 inches and fingerprint sensors.
According to GreenBot, reports out of China quoted Lenovo's Senior Vice President of Mobile Chen Xudong Liu as saying that these two features will be needed for the new Moto brands to stay competitive.
Smartphones nowadays tend to have bigger and brighter displays, and fingerprint scanner tech – previously only available in high-end models – is now common among premium and mid-range phones.
GSM Arena added that parent company Lenovo's plans for 2016 also include having the combined Moto by Lenovo brand used for the company's high-end flagship outings, while the above-average and mid-specs lineups will be absorbed by the company's Vibe designation. Lenovo also reportedly plans to only offer no more than 15 models for this year.
Meanwhile, while some industry followers said that this decision might make Lenovo discontinue and eventually nix Moto lineups with smaller displays (like Moto E, which has a 4.3-inch screen), The Verge disagrees. Motorola itself told the website that the most successful brands will still continue. Apparently, a Moto representative told The Verge, "Although we are simplifying the combined Motorola and [Lenovo] portfolio, we have no plans to retire Moto G, our most successful smartphone, or Moto E."
