Science/Tech

Lenovo to say goodbye to its Vibe series?

By Lord Castillo | Update Date: Nov 27, 2015 04:48 PM EST

Lenovo is the world's fourth biggest smartphone manufacturer, but it hopes to climb up the ladder by simplifying its product range. They have been selling mobile phones under three brands which are Motorala, Vibe and Lemon. Lenovo is now cutting out its Vibe brand of middle-to-high-end phones , Chen Xudong, president of Lenovo's Mobile Business Group, reportedly told Tech QQ.

Lenovo will now be selling mid-tier and premium devices under Motorola, which it bought off Google for $2.91 billion last October 2014. The Motorola smartphones will be priced between 1,500 yuan ($235, AU$325, £155) and 5,000 yuan ($780, AU$1,080, £520), while the Lemon series are sold for as low as 600 yuan ($95, AU$130, £60). Lemon will be having some of Vibe's hardware with cheaper to mid-ranged mobile phones.

Lenovo, however, denied the news, with its Mobile Business Group's director of marketing, Sridhar Ramaswamy, telling CNET: "We created VIBE as a smartphone brand and we are committed to developing it. We do not have any plans to phase out the VIBE brand, and it will remain."

Lenovo's reported move is to solidify its product range comes at a time when the growth of the Chinese smartphone market, currently the world's largest is slowing down. In 2014 IDC predicted, 32.3 percent of all smartphones produced globally were shipped to China, and by 2019, with the rise of markets like India and Africa, that number is expected to drop to 23.1 percent.

"China clearly remains a very important market," says Ryan Reith, program director with IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, though he added that "the focus will be more on exports than consumption as domestic growth slows significantly."

Xudong also told the Economic Times that Lenovo intends to ramp up smartphone production India significantly next year. They hope to manufacture 10 million phones in India.

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