It’s not been about a year and a half since Motorola officially joined Lenovo. So how have things been going? Well, not great, according to Lenovo.
Lenovo today shared its Q4 and full year 2016 results, and in it the company revealed that its efforts to integrate Motorola “did not meet expectations.” During Q4, Lenovo shipped 10.9 million smartphones, nearly 5 million of which came from Motorola. However, Lenovo says that phone shipments in China dropped 85 percent and that the product transition in North America “was not successful.”
Despite all that, Lenovo is trying to stay positive. The company says that it’s learned a lot since its acquisition of Motorola and is applying those lessons quickly. In China, Lenovo plans to leverage its ZUK to rebuild its competitiveness, and it hopes to get its US business back on track by offering a “competitive product portfolio.”
Ever since Motorola became part of Lenovo, we’ve seen new Moto E, Moto G, and Moto X phones launched, though they were likely at least partially in the works before Lenovo took over. The Moto E and G phones are popular as affordable smartphones, but it doesn’t seem like they’re doing great for Lenovo lately, which isn’t too surprising given their age. Lenovo and Motorola did recently announce new Moto G phones, though, and they’re expected to introduce new Moto Z flagships next month. Whether or not those devices will help Motorola to meet Lenovo’s expectations remains to be seen.