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Back in 2012, Lenovo was one of the top 5 smartphone brands in the world, but over the last few years, this brand has lost so much marketshare. To be sure, it still is the world’s largest personal computer vendor by unit sales, as of March 2019.
Lenovo acquired IBM’s PC business in 2005 and did good with it. Its PC busines is doing extremely well. The focus of this article is the mobile business, where it has been on a downward slide despite churning out some really solid smartphones.
When was the last time Lenovo was mentioned as a strong contender in a conversation around high-end smartphones? When was the last time you, the reader, had a Lenovo on your list of possible smartphone purchases?
This year, 2019, alone, Lenovo-Motorola has announced a number of smartphones. The Moto branded phones have gotten a lot of attention in the press, but while the Lenovo branded ones have also been the the press, the mindshare is not as strong. It is almost as if there is a mental block against Lenovo smartphones.
Lenovo-Motorola: From 2014 to 2019
in 2014, Lenovo also acquired American smartphone company, Motorola Mobility, as a means to expand its smartphone footprint to the USA. And so Motorola became a Lenovo company. At that time, Lenovo-Motorola combined was the 3rd largest manufacturer of of smartphones by volume. That was 5 years ago.
The Motorola smartphone brand had struggled for years under its original parent company, Motorola, and then under Google. An acquisition by a top smartphone and PC maker was a good thing and onlookers expected that Lenovo would be able to bring back life to this brand that was once the world’s largest mobile maker.
Over the next few years, however, Lenovo-Motorola bounced back-and-forth over branding indecisions. Lenovo was already big in smartphones, but Motorola also had brand value thanks to its history, and especially its roots as an American company. One can imagine the dilemma: which brand should take the spotlight? Should both brands run side-by-side, or should one absorb the other completely?
And so, the dance kicked off. In 2015, the company announced that Lenovo would be absorbed into the Motorola brand . Then in 2016, Lenovo said they would drop the Motorola branding and use just Moto instead. By 2016, Lenovo had dropped off the world’s top 5 smartphone brands chart . Its place was taken by OPPO and/or Vivo. In 2017, Lenovo-Motorola made another u-turn and decided to retain the Motorola branding. Sigh.
The combined global market share of Lenovo-Motorola has been on a slow decline since the acquisition in 2014. Odd. One would have expected a surge in marketshare, or at the least, some growth. But that was not to be. From the 2014 acquisition, Lenovo-Motorola has consistently dropped away..silently..like a listing ship. As at 2018, the brand was in 8th place globally in terms of smartphone shipment.
Motorola’s legacy lives, but it isn’t selling much
Motorola smartphones get good press, largely out of American sentiments: this was an American brand that was loved, and much of the online tech press is American. So, that sentiment continues to produce great press coverage for the brand. But sales of Motorola phones have not been corresponding with the high-profile press they get.
The brand has a strong footing in South America, and that is mostly it. In Africa, Motorola all but lost whatever mindshare it had and eventually packed up and left. The story is pretty much the same in most places that the Moto brand once was vibrant.
The good news in all of these is that after years of trimming operations, Motorola Mobile finally made its first profit since the 2014 acquisition [1].
Lenovo smartphones
Meanwhile, Lenovo makes superb smartphones that barely get talked about. The Lenovo Z5 Pro GT , hit the market in January 2019 and it is barely talked about. And it isn’t for lack of impressive specs and features. It uses a Snapdragon 855 chip, has a whopping 12 GB of RAM, and has one of those cool mechanical sliders at the top that houses the selfie dual camera.
So, we are looking at a cool and powerful smartphone that is as notchless as notchless can be. Since then, other interesting devices have been announced, including Lenovo Z6 Pro, which is fitted with a 48 megapixel quadruple rear camera, a Snapdragon 855 processor, a 12GB RAM variant and a 4000mAh battery. The Z6 Youth Edition is another, this time a mid-ranger but also with decent specs.
Even in China, its home territory, Lenovo Mobile, has lost marketshare. The story is the same elsewhere. Like Motorola, the brand upped and left Africa eventually due to poor sales. In India, the rave of the moment, the brand is not a top contender either.
While Lenovo-Motorola was active here in Nigeria, we reviewed a number of Lenovo and Motorola devices, and they were all decent offerings at good prices. The list includes Lenovo Vibe S1 and Lenovo Vibe P1m . Yet sales turned out poor.
While other Chinese smartphone brands are taking new grounds, Lenovo-Mobile keeps fading quietly away. Can the company turn the tide?
References
- Motorola Finally Makes Money, After Being Bought By Lenovo 5 Years Ago
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Author:Mister Mobility
Digital Skills and Communication Coach | Mobile Phone Connoisseur since 2001 | Tech Blogging since 2004
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Yesterday, I received an email from Google offering me a 6-month free trial subscription to Google One. If you are hearing of Google One for the first time, here is a breakdown that explains what it is, how it works, and how much it costs.
Google One is a subscription service that replaces the old Google Drive subscription with extended cloud storage that is shared across Google Drive, Gmail, and Google Photos, as well as access to premium Google support.
PS : If you already have a Gmail account, you have a Google account already and your Gmail login is what you need to access any Google service.
The first tier is 100 GB of storage, which is what I am being offered now. It includes access to Google expert support, exclusive member benefits, as well as the ability to share my subscription with 5 additional family members. Each extra person I share with gets their own private space. This 100 GB package costs $1.99 or ₦390 per month. If I accept the offer, I do not pay anything for the first 6 months.
By the way, I looked up what the exclusive member benefits are. Google says they are from other Google products, such as special hotel pricing. They also added that benefits are not guaranteed.
Google One was later updated to include automatic backups for Android phones and iPhones. This allows members to automatically backup photos, contacts, messages, and more, so that if they lose, break, or upgrade their device, they can restore everything to a new device.
Another update to the app, in July 2020, made automatic phone backups free for anyone with a Google account. This includes iOS users. This means that automatic backups are now included in the basic 15 GB free storage that all Google users have. Great news!
How much is Google One membership?
Here are the available Google One subscription plans and their fees:
- 100 GB for $1.99 or ₦390/month (alternatively, $19.99 or ₦3900 /year)
- 200 GB for $2.99 or ₦780/month (alternatively $29.99 or ₦7,800/year)
- 2 TB for $9.99 or N1,990/month (alternatively $99.99 or ₦1,990/year)
- 10 TB for $99.99 or ₦19,990/month
- 20 TB for $199.99 or ₦39,990/month
- 30 TB for $299.99 or ₦59,990/month
You can cancel at any time. Do note that if you cancel, your files above the free 15 GB storage will remain online, but you will be unable to sync them or add/create any new files over the free limit. If you are over the storage limit, you will be unable to send or receive emails.
History
Local Guides can try Google One for free
From the offer email, I qualified for this based on me being a Google Local Guide. Well, I travel by road quite a bit and use Google Maps regularly to keep track of traffic, as well as confirm my routes. As such, I tend to update Maps from time to time. I am guessing that’s what got me qualified for this.
Local Guides are individuals like you and I who write reviews, share photos, answer questions, add or edit places, and check facts on Google Maps. If you move around a lot and use Google Maps, it isn’t a bad idea to contribute useful info to help make it better and more accurate. You can do this right inside the Maps app.
If you are already a local guide, hopefully, you will get an offer like I did.
How do you get Google One?
To signup, click on this link . You will need a means of payment, which by default is your credit or debit card. If you are qualified for a free trial, don’t worry; you won’t get charged till your trial is over.
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Author:Mister Mobility
Digital Skills and Communication Coach | Mobile Phone Connoisseur since 2001 | Tech Blogging since 2004
