For generations, the Motorola brand has been synonymous with quality IT – from microchips through to cell phones – especially in South Africa. And, while it has largely disappeared since the company was gobbled up by Google, its subsequent acquisition by Lenovo is set to see the brand restored to its former glory.

In a Q&A session at the launch of Lenovo’s new Yoga 3 suite of multimode lifestyle products, Aymar de Lencquesaing, the company’s EMEA president, revealed that it has plans to launch specific products that will leverage the legendary Motorola brand during the course of this year.

”Motorola is an iconic brand that has been built up over the past 70 to 80 years,” says De Lencquesaing. “It has enormous brand equity and we have every intention of bringing it back to South Africa. It has a lot of resonance in South Africa and we will see the launch of certain products under the Motorola brand by the end of the year.”

It has been widely speculated that the first products under the Motorola name will be in the smartphone category and, with Lenovo’s recent acquisition of IBM’s server business, will round out its strategy of being the vendor of choice for the enterprise – from handheld devices, tablets and notebooks through to the gamut of x86 servers.

“We’re at an inflection point and acquisitions such as Motorola and IBM servers are a game-changer for us,” De Lencquesaing says. “They will help us achieve and deliver our strategy in the [enterprise] market where we can be considered a one-stop shop: from smartphones and tablets all the way through to top-end servers.

“We’re very focused on being an end-to-end company, and the company of choice for customers,” he adds.

On his first visit to South Africa, De Lencquesaing says he has not only been impressed by the country itself, but also at the performance of the local subsidiary under the leadership of Graham Braum.

“In South Africa, we believe in empowering the local people and we have delegated and decentralised responsibility to them,” he says. “It is a company that is run by South Africans and they make the realtime, best decisions for the
local market – from the choice of channel partners through to which products are relevant and launched.

“And the results speak for themselves,” De Lencquesaing says. “In two years, the South African team has taken our 12% market share and increased it to 26% market share. The numbers don’t lie and this is a really solid performance by the entire team.”

Pictured: Aymar de Lencquesaing, Lenovo’s EMEA president.