At this point, the smartphone business strategy of Motorola seems to be best summarised as “throw all at a wall and see which sticks.” The phones are all over the place, from an expensive foldable to a handful of mid-range phones to budget-friendly entry-level handsets. Motorola has entered into a partnership as if that were not enough, which will build yet another line of Motorola phones that may not actually carry the DNA of Motorola inside.
You may not be familiar with the Bullitt Group, but you may be aware of at least one of the two smartphones sold by the company. Licensing the names from their respective owners, CAT and Land Rover phones boast to be some of the most rugged phones in the mobile market and often look the part. Now Motorola and Bullitt are teaming up for Motorola-branded rugged phone which is known as a “global strategic brand partnership.”
It’s not like Motorola doesn’t have its own rugged line of phones. Depending on the marketing strategy of the company at the time, they took on various names, from Motorola DROID to the Moto Z Force. This time, it might not be making these rugged phones itself.
Given the actual business of the Bullitt Group, this partnership suggests that the company would make the phones and then slap the name of Motorola everywhere. As far as the world is concerned, This may very well be a Motorola handset, adding to the dizzying number of models under its name.
That said, apart from their reliability, CAT and Land Rover rugged phones have not exactly been noticeable for their features and a Motorola-branded Bullitt phone could not even make a dent in Motorola’s profits. This, however, may also mean that Motorola might remain afloat in another way, licencing its brand the way BlackBerry did to other phone manufacturers and, soon, LG as well.