January 8, 2016 - The saddest day for Motorola Fans

It was exactly two years ago that Motorola's parent company, Lenovo, announced that the iconic 90 year old brand would be killed, in favor of the shorter and upcoming "Moto" sub-brand. Most heart-breaking day ever. I went nuts, just like every single Motorola Fans out there. 

How could it be possible that the iconic name that made the Moon Landing possible, that invented the mobile phone and delivered the first home consumer products throughout the 20th century would be dying in favor of a trendy sub-brand that just represented half of its name?

Throughout 2016, my duty was to annoy the hell out of Motorola's marketing team with my complaints. And so did other fans. 

Thankfully, Motorola's leadership changed later that year and the current Chief Marketing Officer, Jan Huckfeldt listened to my concerns, and we slowly started getting back a lot of what we had lost.
I'm very proud that he listened to my complaints about the classic "11:35AM" shown on marketing material, which had been removed from all promotional visuals. 11:35AM, is in fact, a very iconic moment in Motorola's history, as it was the exact time when Martin Cooper made the first mobile phone call ever, on April 3rd, 1973.

He also agreed that the power-on animation, as well as most marketing material should leverage the iconic Motorola logo instead of the "Moto" word.

I was very happy with these, but little did we know that this was all part of his transition to bring the iconic brand back to its original form.

In mid-2017, the full Motorola brand was brought back, and today Motorola Mobility is the #4 global manufacturer, #2 in Latin America and India, #5 in the USA, and has grown its market share in Western Europe by 130% year over year. 

It was a tough road for us in the community, but we pulled through. 

See, marketing is about listening to your biggest fans and most loyal consumers, and not what comes as hip and trendy. Lenovo and Motorola understood the power of consumer feedback.


MOTOROLA IS HERE TO STAY AND IT AIN'T GOING ANYWHERE.