Interesting development: Chinese PC juggernauts, Lenovo have struck a deal worth $2.9 billion to buy off Motorola’s smartphone unit from Google, pending US and Chinese government approval.
This announcement is coming on the heels of speculation that Google will eventually end their Nexus line in favour of Google Play edition smartphones. Remember that Google acquired Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion back in 2011. Under Google’s watch, Mototrola released the Moto X and Moto G but, innovative as they were, the devices weren’t quite hits with the consumer market and Motorola have continued to struggle to find their feet. With this new development, Google has all but exited the smartphone making scene.
According to sources, Google still get to keep a huge chunk of Motorola’s mobile patents, but Lenovo get to leverage the Motorola legacy. With Lenovo’s impending official launch in Nigeria all but finalized, it looks like Motorola is set to make a Nigerian comeback. Better late than never
*UPDATE*: According to The Verge Motorola’s modular smartphone project, code-named Project Ara is also not included in the Lenovo deal. That stays on with Google’s Android team. Looks like Google isn’t exiting the smartphone manufacturing scene anytime soon.
