More changes are coming for Lenovo’s struggling mobile phone business. Media reports say the global tech giant is shutting down its Zuk Mobile division, which launched less than two years ago in an attempt to combat lower-priced competitors in China.
Citing a report that first surface on a Chinese social media site, NDTV and GSMarena report that Lenovo is not going to deliver a new model, the Zuk 23, and that the entire business is being shuttered with phones to be incorporated in the Lenovo Moto brand.
“If this is true, Zuk will reportedly shut down its operations in just 23 months of its existence, and will combine with Lenovo and Moto to form a new brand in the future,” NDTV’s Gadgets 360 reported.
“For now, Lenovo is pushing its Moto smartphones as is, and future phones will continue to use the Moto ”bat wing’ logo. This could probably be because Lenovo would want to leverage from the legacy brand as much as it can.”
Lenovo has struggled to find success with Motorola and its smartphone business since acquiring Motorola Mobility from Google in 2014.
The group has gone through several rounds of layoffs, management changes, and changes in brand strategy.
Industry analyst Pan Jiutang was cited by the news websites as a source for the Lenovo decision.
“Analyst Pan Jiutang admitted Lenovo will wrap up the series of smartphones to challenge its competitors on the Chinese market,” GSMarena, a smartphone-focused news site, reported.
Zuk has to date launched five phones, including one unveiled in December.
Lenovo operates one of its two global headquarters in Morrisville. Most of its operations are based in China.
