Motorola name is to be phased out

The Motorola branding will be seen less and less when it comes to smartphones from now on.

Motorola COO Rick Osterloh told CNET that Motorola branding will "slowly phase out" of phones this year. Instead, Lenovo will take over the branding of phones.

This doesn't mean the end of everything that we would have known before. The Moto name will be used for high-end handsets, most likely because the brand is already known, while the batwing M is also expected to stick around. Lenovo's Vibe branding will be used for budget phones, and the Lenovo branding will grace all handsets.

Motorola Mobility will continue to exist as a Lenovo company, according to a statement from the Moto PR team. It is "the engineering and design engine for all of our mobile products." But for product branding, it "will utilise a dual brand strategy across smartphone and wearables going forward using Moto and Vibe globally. 'Motorola' hasn't been used on our products since the launch of the original Moto X in 2013," the spokesperson said.