“We have a plan to ramp up Motorola,” said Liu Jun, president of Lenovo’s mobile business group, in an interview with Wall Street Journal on the sidelines of the annual Consumer Electronics Show.
Lenovo is in a race with rivals Xiaomi and Huawei this year to be the world’s third-biggest smartphone vendor behind Samsung and Apple. In the third quarter of 2014, Lenovo ranked sixth with a market share of 4.8%, according to market research firm Strategy Analytics.
Mr. Liu said a major focus for him now is integrating the Motorola business and making it profitable within the four to six quarters that the company has allocated for the turnaround.“The most challenging part is not only that we need to integrate the business, but we have to turn around the business quickly,” He said. “So we have a very aggressive plan.”
Price will be one main differentiator between the Lenovo and Motorola brands, said Mr. Liu. Motorola smartphones this year will mainly be priced north of $400, while Lenovo-brand smartphones will be launched below $400.