Motorola has been involved with mobile technology since the very beginning, but you'll be seeing that name a lot less going forward. After acquiring the company from Google, Lenovo has decided to retire the Motorola brand and go with the snappier "Moto."

According to Motorola CEO Rick Osterloh, Lenovo will keep the Motorola name around at an organizational level, but at the consumer level you'll see phones emblazoned with the Moto "batwing" logo and "Moto by Lenovo." Phasing out the Motorola brand will mark the end of an era in technology. The Motorola name was on the very first cell phones, including the iconic DynaTAC (the first consumer cell phone) and StarTAC (the first flip phone). Hell, Motorola made the radios that humanity took to the moon on the Apollo missions. "Moto" doesn't exactly have the same gravitas.

Maybe Motorola's image is just too much for Lenovo to compete with. Lenovo has said it wants to unify products under its own brand, hence "Moto by Lenovo." It might help to get people more acquainted with Lenovo as a smartphone maker. It's currently known mainly as a PC maker in most of the world. Lenovo does plan to bring Vibe phones to all markets where Moto devices are sold and vice versa, but the introduction of Vibe in the US might take a year or more.

Source: Cnet