Motorola will return to South Africa before the end of 2016

A new report from MyBroadband suggests that Lenovo-owned Motorola will relaunch in South Africa after a long hiatus.

According to Lenovo Africa’s MD Graham Braum, cited in the report, the Chinese company will be “bringing this [Motorola] technology to South Africa before the end of 2016.”

This corroborates statements made by Lenovo’s EMEA president Eric Cador earlier this year.

While this is certainly positive news for Motorola fans, we’ve heard this all before from Lenovo.

The company first hinted at Motorola’s return to South Africa back in 2014. Nothing happened. We were again given affirmation of the brand’s return by Lenovo’s then-EMEA president Aymar de Lencquesaing back in 2015. We’re still waiting.

With this stellar track record, you can look forward to another report in January 2017 stating the exact same thing.

Procrastination aside, reintroducing Motorola to South Africa now does make brand and financial sense for Lenovo, considering its strong stance in the dwindling PC market, and in the wake of its rival’s growth (Huawei and Xiaomi) in South Africa’s smartphone sector.

As for the devices that may make their debut, we could see the highly-successful Moto G series, as well as the more premium Moto Z range. The official range of Moto wearables should also be expected.

According to World Wide Worx’s Arthur Goldstruck, the Lenovo PHAB2 — the company’s huge 6.4-inch phablet — also has a chance of making its debut.