Lenovo Moto X Force, the smartphone with a shatterproof display, was launched in India starting at a premium price of Rs 49,999. The launch also confirmed that going forward in 2016, the Moto brand will become a sub-brand of Lenovo, and the Motorola tag will be dropped. “While Moto will be the flagship brand with premium features and experience, our Vibe brand will be the challenger geared towards mass market,” said Lenovo Mobile Business Group (MBG) Director Sudhin Mathur. Mathur said Moto and Vibe will be positioned differently in the market, with Vibe focussing on specs at affordable prices, while Moto will be the more aspirational brand. Mathur essentially confirmed that the ‘Motorola’ brand name will effectively be dropped from branding exercises in 2016. Watch our first look video of Moto X Force Moto X Force First Look He said Lenovo wishes to scale up manufacturing in its Chennai plant in India. A recent Canalys report claims that Lenovo+Moto had acquired the third spot in the Indian market for Q3 2015, beating homegrown players like Intex, Lava etc. Lenovo says it shipped 8 million smartphones in India for all of 2015. Asked if the company was worried about a possible cannibalisation between the Vibe and Moto phones, the company said they don’t expect this to be an issue. Motorola Mobility India head Amit Boni said that the company had worked on the shatter-proof display for nearly three years and will offer a 4-year warranty for the display as well. In Pictures: Moto X Force launched in India: Specs, price and more Interestingly, this is the first Motorola smartphone in India which will also be available offline, since the company’s return to this market in 2013 with the Moto G (1st gen). While so far Motorola had gone with an online only strategy, the Moto X Force will be available in Croma and Spice Stores as well. “With certain price categories, we want to see what happens when we go offline. Moto X Force is the first in the list, and we could add more to this. As we aim for more growth in the Indian smartphone market, we wish to diversify channels of distribution,” Amit Boni told IndianExpress.com. Boni also said the Moto X brand has seen 300-400 per cent growth in India in the past year. Typically, the ‘X’ branded phones have been priced higher in the price-conscious Indian market. Also read: Lenovo Moto X Force with Shattershield display: Here’s how it works
