LENOVO Group Ltd. will bring Motorola phones back to China in the first quarter this year, reintroducing the brand to the world’s largest market after an absence of more than two years.

    The Moto X will be sold in February, with the Moto X Pro and Moto G to follow later, Motorola spokesman William Moss said yesterday. Lenovo completed the US$2.91 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility from Google Inc. in October last year.

    Lenovo, the world’s largest maker of personal computers, is focused on an expansion in smartphones amid a global decline in personal computer demand. The Beijing-based company’s phone push has been challenged by Xiaomi Corp., which surpassed the company in China and worldwide smartphone market share in the third quarter.

    “It’s been about two years since we actively launched products in China,” Moss said. “Lenovo has been clear for some time that bringing Motorola back to China was going to be a priority. It’s something we’ve been working very hard on since the close of the acquisition.”

    During the third quarter, Samsung Electronics Co. led global smartphone shipments with 23.8 percent market share, followed by Apple Inc. with 12 percent, International Data Corp. (IDC) reported in October. Xiaomi was third with 5.3 percent while Lenovo was in fourth place with 5.2 percent, IDC said.

    That was before Lenovo completed the Motorola purchase, which would have been enough to put Lenovo in third place globally, ahead of Xiaomi, IDC said in October. (SD-Agencies)