Android By Russell Holly Jan. 31, 2014 12:55 pm
One big question on the minds of everyone who cares that Lenovo is purchasing Motorola’s smartphone division undoubtedly has to do with the future of the devices and disciplines that earned Moto so much goodwill in 2013. In a recent interview with the president of Lenovo, it was made clear that these principles and hardware brands are here to stay… for now.
Motorola’s sale to Lenovo is still pending, and if the months-long waiting period we saw when Google purchased Motorola is any indication of how long this transaction will take, we’ve got quite a wait ahead of us. Assuming everything goes off without a hitch, what then? What happens to the staff, the projects under development, and the current devices that Motorola has released since it was under Google’s banner? VentureBeat sat down with the president of Lenovo North America, Jay Parker, and most of these questions got thorough answers.
As you’re probably aware, Lenovo is no stranger to maintaining a brand or its identity after an acquisition. Despite years of corporate integration, Lenovo laptops and tablets still have a very IBM look to them. Lenovo knows that they need to keep their existing customers happy and utilize their global supply chains to expand that customer base globally. Parker insists that the plan for now is to do the same thing with Motorola.
That means that the Moto X and the Moto G aren’t going anywhere, and Lenovo will do what it does best and make the handsets available to as many people as possible. Especially in the case of the ultra-cheap but thoroughly impressive Moto G, this is a big deal for the developing markets that Lenovo already has its hands in.
A major concern held by many is software, and this interview did very little to assuage those notions. The Moto X and Moto G aren’t just great phones because of hardware, they are so great because of hardware-software integration. Lenovo is a hardware company that has made quite a bit of money “squeezing profits out of thin markets” as Jay Parker put it. Lenovo’s current smartphones are a spectacular example of how not to make smartphones. They are bland slabs of plastic and glass with outdated software that rarely is ever see updates. Lenovo needs to make sure this doesn’t happen in the future, and Motorola — as it exists right now — has all of the tools needed to make sure good things happen.
Motorola is not going to exist as a separate company. Everything will be absorbed eventually into the Lenovo brand, just like IBM’s ThinkPad division was. The exact details of the integration have not yet been hammered out, and will likely depend heavily on whether or not key Motorola employees decide to jump ship between now and when the deal is finalized.
Team members like Punit Soni have been instrumental in changing how Motorola handles software, specifically the company’s custom software that is so often stagnant by the time a phone is released. Soni and his team have taken huge strides in making sure Motorola’s software is frequently updated with new features and bugfixes, and they deliver those changes through the Google Play Store – something no other OEM is currently doing.
Google’s continued influence will likely play a part in the Lenovo’s smartphone future as well. Parker made it clear in his interview that Lenovo’s relationship with Google has only gotten stronger as a result of this negotiation process, and that makes perfect sense. Both companies are getting a lot out of this deal, including a mutually beneficial patent arrangement that is likely very similar to the one Samsung now has with Google. With that arrangement probably comes some form of added influence, like the rumored conversations between Samsung and Google to tone down the TouchWiz customizations on future phones. It seems highly likely that Google will act as a guiding hand for the next year as Lenovo prepares to enter the US through Motorola.
In the end there’s still plenty of uncertainty to go around, but there’s also more than enough good will between these companies that it is worth holding out some hope that Lenovo will use Motorola to do something great.
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Motorola’s sale to Lenovo is still pending, and if the months-long waiting period we saw when Google purchased Motorola is any indication of how long this transaction will take, we’ve got quite a wait ahead of us. Assuming everything goes off without a hitch, what then? What happens to the staff, the projects under development, and the current devices that Motorola has released since it was under Google’s banner? VentureBeat sat down with the president of Lenovo North America, Jay Parker, and most of these questions got thorough answers.
As you’re probably aware, Lenovo is no stranger to maintaining a brand or its identity after an acquisition. Despite years of corporate integration, Lenovo laptops and tablets still have a very IBM look to them. Lenovo knows that they need to keep their existing customers happy and utilize their global supply chains to expand that customer base globally. Parker insists that the plan for now is to do the same thing with Motorola.
That means that the Moto X and the Moto G aren’t going anywhere, and Lenovo will do what it does best and make the handsets available to as many people as possible. Especially in the case of the ultra-cheap but thoroughly impressive Moto G, this is a big deal for the developing markets that Lenovo already has its hands in.
A major concern held by many is software, and this interview did very little to assuage those notions. The Moto X and Moto G aren’t just great phones because of hardware, they are so great because of hardware-software integration. Lenovo is a hardware company that has made quite a bit of money “squeezing profits out of thin markets” as Jay Parker put it. Lenovo’s current smartphones are a spectacular example of how not to make smartphones. They are bland slabs of plastic and glass with outdated software that rarely is ever see updates. Lenovo needs to make sure this doesn’t happen in the future, and Motorola — as it exists right now — has all of the tools needed to make sure good things happen.
Motorola is not going to exist as a separate company. Everything will be absorbed eventually into the Lenovo brand, just like IBM’s ThinkPad division was. The exact details of the integration have not yet been hammered out, and will likely depend heavily on whether or not key Motorola employees decide to jump ship between now and when the deal is finalized.
Team members like Punit Soni have been instrumental in changing how Motorola handles software, specifically the company’s custom software that is so often stagnant by the time a phone is released. Soni and his team have taken huge strides in making sure Motorola’s software is frequently updated with new features and bugfixes, and they deliver those changes through the Google Play Store – something no other OEM is currently doing.Google’s continued influence will likely play a part in the Lenovo’s smartphone future as well. Parker made it clear in his interview that Lenovo’s relationship with Google has only gotten stronger as a result of this negotiation process, and that makes perfect sense. Both companies are getting a lot out of this deal, including a mutually beneficial patent arrangement that is likely very similar to the one Samsung now has with Google. With that arrangement probably comes some form of added influence, like the rumored conversations between Samsung and Google to tone down the TouchWiz customizations on future phones. It seems highly likely that Google will act as a guiding hand for the next year as Lenovo prepares to enter the US through Motorola.
In the end there’s still plenty of uncertainty to go around, but there’s also more than enough good will between these companies that it is worth holding out some hope that Lenovo will use Motorola to do something great.
More...
