Ready for Lenovo’s first Motorola smartphone?

Motorola may be back in the smartphone market before yearend, with its first offering as a unit of Lenovo, a UK news site reported.

The Telegraph said the smartphone would be Motorola's first major release since it was acquired by Lenovo in October 2014.

“We have many new models in development with the Moto brands, so you may see us in summer launching some very exciting products, including phones and watches,” Lenovo chairman and chief executive Yang Yuanqing told The Telegraph's Sophie Curtis.

Lenovo acquired Motorola from Google in late 2014 and indicated it intends to continue using the Motorola brand for smartphones.

Liu Jun, president of Lenovo's mobile business group, pointed out Moto and Lenovo have different brand positions.

“Our global strategy is a two-brand strategy, which means if there is a market demand, we would like to bring both brands in that market. In South East Asia, for example, we will probably bring the Motorola brand to a few countries,” Liu said.

Meanwhile, Motorola global sales leader Colin Giles said Lenovo will invest more heavily in Motorola in markets with strong brand awareness.

But he said there are some markets like India and China, "where we can certainly have two brands."

“We're deeply committed to building the Moto brand. Having said that, when you're scaling the business you have to make choices, so we're focusing on proven markets,” he said.

Android

Giles also said Motorola's devices likely to continue using Google's Android operating system for now.

“There are no plans to start launching operating systems other than Android. One of the key differentiators for us is the pure Android experience, and we're deeply proud of that, because we believe it brings a much better software experience to consumers, and faster upgrades,” he said. — Joel Locsin/LBG, GMA News