Motorola, with its newly launched smartphones, is taking a different approach in a world obsessed with megapixels and hardware specifications. The brand is focusing on design and user experience with its new launches. At the Motorola Edge 50 Pro launch event in India, Tarun Pathak, Research Director at Counterpoint, sat down with Ruben Castano, Head of Design and Experience at Motorola Mobility, to talk about the brand’s strategic shift towards its lifestyle image, collaboration with Pantone and much more.

The Interview

Key takeaways from the discussion:

Lifestyle branding, new design language:

• Motorola is transforming into a lifestyle brand with a new design language that prioritizes ergonomics.
• Castano emphasized ageless and genderless aesthetics.
• Castano also underscored the importance of color, material, and finish (CMF) as a decision factor for consumers.
• The Motorola Edge 50 Pro features a vegan leather back, offering consumers a better grip and a way to express themselves with their devices.
• The new pearl finish was developed in partnership with high-end fashion brand Mazzucchelli.

Strategic partnership with Pantone:

• Motorola has collaborated with Pantone, a world leader in color expertise.
• This partnership gives Motorola access to color trend forecasting about 6-18 months in advance.
• Pantone’s expertise is also being used for display calibration and ensuring color accuracy from capture to display.
• Motorola focuses on both global and regional customization based on research in specific markets.

AI integration:

• Moto AI focuses on AI that is meaningful for consumers by offering enhanced experience.
• AI in camera to improve photography and videography, Style Sync feature to create personalized wallpapers using AI, and background optimizations to elevate performance, battery, display, and more.

Focus on user experience and connected ecosystem:

• Motorola is moving beyond tech specs in marketing and focusing on user experience.
• Motorola is also leveraging Lenovo's security solutions for enhanced phone protection.
• Smart Connect, a cross-platform connectivity solution to connect Motorola smartphones seamlessly and wirelessly with Windows PCs and tablets.
• Seamlessly drag and drop to transfer content like photos and videos, or copy text across devices, into presentations, and more.

Analyst takeaways:

• Motorola has been doing well lately, one of the key reasons is that the brand is riding on the premiumization trend driven by its Edge and Razr portfolio. Motorola’s premium series (>$600 wholesale) sales grew 33% YoY globally in Q1 2024.
• Motorola is aiming to strive for meaningful device experiences by integrating AI across its ecosystem products and taking a beyond-device approach, shifting the conversation beyond specifications.
• Motorola is taking up deeper and more strategic industry partnerships instead of a wide range of partnerships. One such example is its partnership with Pantone which helped it to differentiate its devices from design, display, and camera perspectives.
• According to Counterpoint, product design is one aspect where Motorola is doing better than some of its competitors.