Motorola, a name synonymous with mobile phones (given they invented them), is soon to be no more, with a decision by parent company Lenovo Group, Ltd. to retire the brand.

The news came via an interview between Motorola, Inc. Chief Operating Officer Rick Osterloh and C/Net, who told the publication that while they were retiring the name, at least part of the name will live on with new phones to be known as “Moto by Lenovo.”

Ditching the full Motorola name is said to be an attempt to unify all of the company’s mobile device offerings under a single umbrella brand, with cheap handsets to be sold under the “Vibe by Lenovo” brand.

Osterloh added that the Motorola brand will live on as the name of a Lenovo subsidiary, and the famed Motorola logo will still adorn phones made by the company, although the blue Lenovo logo will be the primary brand.

Motorola Mobility, LLC (the mobile division) has had a torrid time in the past decade, going from being once a market leader with iconic phones such as the StarTAC and Razr to an also-ran, complete with changing ownership, first to Google, Inc. in 2012 and then onto Lenovo in January 2014 for $2.91 billion.

Sad but understandable

The move to retire the Motorola brand is sad given the rich and amazing history the company and brand has had within the space, starting from its invention of the first handheld mobile phone in 1973.

Nonetheless, it is an understandable one from Lenovo’s perspective given that Motorola phones have never really had a presence in Asia, whereas Lenovo phones haven’t had much (if at all) presence in North America.

The unified branding will allow the Lenovo brand, best known for its personal computer line (which itself was acquired from IBM), to be front and center across its entire range of mobile phones. And the company itself has plans to start selling its cheaper handsets in the United States in the near future as well.

Vale Motorola 1973-2016.

Image credit: johnkarakatsanis/Flickr/CC by 2.0