Motorola is having a well-deserved resurgence under the new ownership of Lenovo. The Chinese parent firm revealed that its new phone business — acquired from Google in October for $2.91 billion — shipped 10 million smartphones last year and is estimated to be about 12-18 months from profitability. Overall, the acquisition has been beneficial for Lenovo — the company’s revenue increased 31 percent during the third quarter, rising to $14.1 billion. Lenovo said it was able to beat investor expectations off the back of smartphone sales, which more than doubled.
And Lenovo is not sitting pretty, satisfied with the turnaround it has achieved, and is already busy rebuilding the company. Motorola is poised to reenter the Chinese market early this year, where it will be one of three smartphone brands operated by Lenovo. Alongside the main product line and Motorola, the firm is preparing to introduce a new Xiaomi-like handset brand focused on mid-range and affordable segments.
Beyond mobile phones, Lenovo also increased its global tablet share to 4.8 percent, and PC sales continue to steamroll with 16 million units sold — up 5 percent over last year. This means Lenovo remains the largest computer seller in the world with a 20 percent market share.