A discussion we have had in-house here at MobilityArena is about how Lenovo and Motorola smartphones are not doing very well in the market. Their devices had little to no advertising and visibility in Nigeria, and from the report we have, the situation was not different in Kenya and other African countries. That report says that Lenovo Mobile and its subsidiary, Motorola Mobile, are exiting African markets.

Our Kenyan friends at TechWeez report that Lenovo and Motorola have closed shop in Kenya and laid off over 90% of their staff:

We admit we didnt see this coming. Lenovo, the company that now owns Motorola Mobile has packed its bags and formally exited the Kenyan market as of the second week of March. The company is said to have laid off over 90% of its Kenyan staff in December of 2017.


According to the TechWeez report, the situation is not limited to just Kenya. Apparently, Lenovo has reportedly shut down all its smartphone operations in Africa but would continue to sell their phones in the region through distributors from UAE.

In March 2017, Lenovo ran a promo, perhaps the first ever I would see, offering a pack of noodles for every Lenovo Vibe C purchased. It was also perhaps the last publicity activity by the company that I can remember.

While we didn’t see this closing of operations coming either, this development hasn’t caused any ripples or shaking here. Both smartphone brands have simply not made a splash in the markets. In Nigeria, you could run a random sampling and will be hard pressed to find one in ten people who use a Lenovo or Motorola smartphone. You would be hard pressed to find one in twenty too.

TechWeez has an official statement from the company:
Updated with Official Statement from Motorola:

“To grow and protect our Motorola business, we are rationalizing some of our organizations and as a result are deploying a new strategy and operating model in some countries. In Kenya, we will transition into an exclusive distribution model for independent and organized retail where our business partner will manage our day-to-day business with the support of the Motorola regional team, and our operator business remains as it is today with a direct partnership with trusted partners like Safaricom. Our main goal is to ensure consumers can choose the best of Motorola products in the Kenyan market and keep a strong overall customer experience including after sales support"

This is sad
We should commend tecno and the likes for being stable and reliable

who want you before

The likes of Tecno and Infinix crept into the market with affordable phones for the average African. And when they got credibility, they took their game up by making flagships that would match any European high end devices even at similar prices.
Moral of the story : Earn the trust of the market and become a household name first.

They are not upto the game.

Lenovo phones are prone to malwares. They allow the chinese ruin their product.

For me, the continious usage of spd makes it a huge joke. Next is coolpad if they ever existed self.

Lenovo is a greedy phone maker. It had great products but deliberately ruined them via useless updates that rendered them useless example is the Lenovo A5000

Ehya

So Hello Moto has left us

Anyway back to my work abeg

I still use Lenovo a5000 and it is doing great.

These european brands lack market strategies, and hardly satisfy consumerso. hence this situation. I even thought The great(back then) nokia was almost going the same route. Good riddance(4rm a sentimental point)
But i feel 4 their Nigerian staffs. THey might jst be laid off too.

Try lenovo vibe p1m, just 28k awesome specs, nice battery

This is a major neglect on Africa. TECNO has shown love and appreciation for the partronage they've been getting from the Nigerian market. Bless up.

radiokilla:
I still use Lenovo a5000 and it is doing great.

I also use their laptop its rugged

I'm currently using Moto G4 Plus, very strong phone and been using it for over a year now, was sent from Brazil and haven't seen it in Nigerian market.

Wiseandtrue:

I also use their laptop its rugged

ok ma

If they waited 5 more years, they will make it big in Nigerian market.

Well Lenovo brand has been good. But most of these foreign companies feel marketing strategies overseas should be used also in Africa.

They often forget it's a whole different market terrain.