Zuk Mobile Division Closes: Lenovo To Rebrand All New Phones As Lenovo Moto

After only 23 months, Zuk Mobile, the newest mobile division of Lenovo, would close. It would mean the ZUK Z3 would no longer be made. As a result of the closure, Lenovo and Moto as well as what remains of Zuk Mobile would merge.

The result of the merger is the rebranding of all phones from the three divisions to Lenovo Moto, GSM Arena reports. Lenovo shuttered Zuk Mobile because the unit had trouble turning a profit. Over the 23 months of its existence, Zuk Mobile launched five mobile phones. The last was ZUK Edge which was revealed before Christmas 2016.

The change would also mean the phase out of the Moto brand and Zuk brand. Pan Jiutang, an analyst, confirmed the posting by Old Cool, a Weibo user, that Lenovo would no longer push through with plans for the launch of the ZUK Z3 phone and Zuk Mobile would close in the coming week, NDTV reports.

While Lenovo would phase out the Moto brand, it would still continue using Moto’s “batwing” logo. NDTV says the Chinese phone maker likely wants to leverage from the legacy brand as much as it could. Lenovo has not confirmed the report, but before the speculations came out, Alex Chen Yu, the vice president of Lenovo, confirmed that upcoming Moto smartphones would have the Zuk ZUI skin.

According to Pan Jiutang, Zuk Mobile managed to create a big fan base around its products, Android Headlines reports. Industry observers say that the ZUK software would likely be seen only in Chinese Moto gadgets, not in U.S. and European variants of these devices. Given the changes, reports say that Chen Xudong, co-founder of Zuk Mobile, would return to the PC business unit of Lenovo. Qian Jian, the current senior VP, and co-president of Lenovo Mobile Business would head the Mobile China unit of Lenovo.