Android has seen countless brands come and go over the years, but one name that has remained a constant presence is Motorola. The company has been around since the early days of Android (and mobile phones in general), and it’s still here today despite multiple shifts in ownership and strategy over the years.
For a brief moment, Motorola even looked like it could seriously challenge Samsung’s dominance in the Android space. So, what happened—and how did Motorola end up where it is today?
Motorola was the phone giant that helped shape Android in the early days
Motorola once dominated the mobile world
Long before smartphones took over, Motorola was one of the most popular cell phone brands in the world. In fact, Motorola is behind the DynaTAC 8000X, which was the first commercially available cellphone. You might be too young to remember that one, but you certainly remember the Motorola Razr line of flip phones, which were the coolest way to stay in touch before the first iPhone reshaped the entire industry in 2007—and it’s this modern Motorola in recent years that I want to focus on today.
Motorola quickly adapted by shifting over to Android, and one of the company’s biggest hits in that era was the Motorola Droid, which was released in late 2009. The Droid combined a 3.7-inch (9.4 cm) touchscreen display with a sliding physical keyboard that was popular in phones from that era (remember the BlackBerry?). Thanks to the successful marketing campaign run by Verizon and Motorola, it was able to finally bring Android as an operating system into the mainstream and became the first real “threat” against the already dominant iPhone.
The next year’s Droid X ditched the physical keyboard and replaced it with an even larger 4.3-inch (10.9 cm) screen, which was considered absolutely massive in 2010. Even the Galaxy S’s 4-inch (10.2 cm) screen looked tiny next to this one. If you wanted a futuristic-looking phone, the Droid X was the phone to get.
Unfortunately, despite the relative success of the early Motorola Android phones, the company was still fundamentally struggling. Their phones were exclusive to Verizon, which locked many potential buyers out as consumers increasingly gravitated toward Samsung’s phones instead. Also, some Motorola phones from this era ran a heavy, clunky skin called Motoblur, which damaged its reputation among Android enthusiasts who wanted a clean, near-stock experience.
By 2011, a struggling Motorola Inc. decided to split the company into two parts: the enterprise-focused Motorola Solutions and the consumer electronics arm Motorola Mobility, which is the side of the legacy I’ll focus on throughout the rest of this article.
Motorola’s golden era is now a distant memory
Motorola made some of the best smartphones in the mid-2010s
If you were following tech in the early 2010s, you probably remember Google’s acquisition of Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion in 2012. Google primarily did this to acquire Motorola’s extensive patent portfolio in order to protect Android from patent infringement lawsuits from other tech giants like Apple and Microsoft.
Motorola underwent a radical transformation under Google’s brief leadership, and in many ways, it was for the better.
You can see it in the phones that came out during this era. This was the golden age of smartphones, defined by diverse design philosophies and a willingness to experiment with new features. Motorola was one of the first brands to fully embrace a stock Android experience, which instantly clicked with enthusiasts.
The brand started to develop its own recognizable design language, featuring a dimpled “M” logo on the back, thin front bezels, and often front-facing stereo speakers that improved gaming and media playback. The phones also had a rounded design that fit comfortably in the hand, even as many of them leaned toward the larger side. Motorola also led the industry with cool and unconventional materials like ballistic nylon, Kevlar, leather, and glass, used for back covers instead of standard plastic or glass finishes.
We saw some of the best Android smartphones come out of Motorola during this era: the iconic Moto G that redefined the budget market, the flagship Moto X series with strong build quality, and the Nexus 6, which marked the peak of Google and Motorola’s collaboration before the company was sold off to Lenovo.
One of my personal favorite models from this era was the 2014 Motorola Droid Turbo, which I bought after seeing Linus Tech Tips use it as his daily driver throughout much of 2015. The phone had an incredibly robust design, a 1440p display, an enormous-at-the-time 3900mAh battery, a flagship Snapdragon 805 processor, and 3GB of RAM when many flagships like the Galaxy S5 still only had 2GB.
Motorola eventually realized it couldn’t continue chasing flagships
Stepping back from the top tier made sense
Motorola lost a lot of its momentum when Lenovo acquired the company in 2014. The first few phones that came out were still following the formula established in the Google era, but what followed was an identity crisis. Motorola doubled down on the G and E series of ultra-cheap budget phones, which were still selling okay, but the real meat of the market—which are always the flagships—was starting to struggle.
Lenovo couldn’t decide what to do with the brand—at first, it wanted to keep the “Moto” name on the flagships while mixing the budget models into Lenovo’s existing Vibe branding, and there was even a short period when all Motorola phones were rebranded as Moto by Lenovo. Fortunately, that was later remedied in 2017, when Lenovo decided to preserve Motorola’s legacy by continuing to sell phones under the original brand name.
The real problem wasn’t the branding, though—it was the direction of Motorola’s flagship strategy. This was perfectly illustrated by the 2016 Moto Z series, which leaned heavily on a first-party accessories gimmick in the form of “Moto Mods.”
You could add things like a JBL speaker or mini projector, which seemed like a cool idea for enthusiasts, but in reality, most users didn’t really care about these expensive add-ons. The Moto X4 was an attempt to revive a once-beloved flagship line, but in reality, it ended up being little more than another midrange phone with flagship branding.
16 years ago, Google launched one of the most important phones in Android history
And it planted the seeds for the Pixel series.
Motorola finally found its identity, but there’s one big problem
A clear direction held back by a familiar issue
Although Motorola struggled to sell its flagship phones, sales remained strong in the budget and mid-range segments. In fact, sales doubled between 2020 and 2024, a period in which Motorola doubled down on its focus on affordable, value-driven smartphones. Even the foldable Razr lineup has built a cult following among users who like compact folding phones like the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip but want something more affordable.
The real problem across the entire Motorola lineup, including its flagships, is the lack of software support. While the software itself has generally been clean, Motorola has traditionally been quick to abandon its devices after just a year or two of updates—in the case of ultra-budget phones, even less.
If you only have $300 to spend on a phone, it’s hard to recommend Motorola over a refurbished Samsung or Pixel that will continue receiving updates for longer than a brand-new Motorola device—even though Motorola phones today often offer some of the most interesting hardware and design choices for the price.
I don’t care if my phone gets long-term updates
I need a good phone today, not updates seven years from now.
Motorola might be ready for a flagship comeback
I’m all here for it
Even though Motorola has struggled in the past, the brand is far from gone. In fact, it held a market share of around 12% in the US throughout 2025, which is a respectable figure when you consider Samsung’s 24% market share. The brand has already surpassed Google and all other Android brands (apart from Samsung) in this space, proving that it still has real weight in the market despite its complicated history.
That momentum, combined with its recent return to flagship territory, suggests that Motorola could be entering a new phase. The Motorola Signature delivers modern high-end hardware, like a 165Hz display, up to 16GB of RAM, and a 5,200 mAh silicon-carbon battery in a unique, slim design. Most importantly, it finally fixes Motorola’s long-standing weakness with 7 years of promised major Android updates. If that commitment holds true and carries across the wider lineup, I can see Motorola once again becoming a serious challenger in the wider Android space.
The phone I most want to see is from an underdog nobody talks about
Sometimes the best phones never win awards.
Stephan is the sports journalist for the Maple Grove Report.
