摩托羅拉 將重返中國智能手機市場

Motorola is planning a return to the Chinese smartphone market to take on local manufacturers such as Xiaomi and Huawei, as the venerable mobile maker’s recovery gains momentum.

隨着摩托羅拉(Motorola)復甦腳步加快，它計劃重返中國智能手機市場，與小米(Xiaomi)和華爲(Huawei)等本土製造商展開競爭。

Putting its Moto X and G devices on sale in the country in the first quarter of this year, Motorola is aiming for younger and more affluent customers in the world’s largest and most competitive mobile market.

摩托羅拉的Moto X和Moto G手機系列將在今年第一季度在中國市場發售，兩款機型都面向這個全球最大、競爭最激烈的手機市場中，較年輕和較富有的消費者。

While under Google’s ownership, Motorola withdrew from China in 2013. Rick Osterloh, Motorola’s president and chief operating officer, told the FT on Tuesday that the company sees a new opportunity there after its sale to Chinese electronics group Lenovo, which closed in October.

2013年，在被谷歌(Google)收購後，摩托羅拉退出中國市場。摩托羅拉總裁兼首席運營官裏克•奧斯特羅(Rick Osterloh)週二告訴英國《金融時報》，在摩托羅拉移動業務被中國電子設備集團聯想(Lenovo)收購（去年10月交易完成）後，該公司看到了新的機會。

“If you want to be amongst the top [smartphone] providers, you have to be in China. It’s a maths problem,” he said. “We see this as a huge synergy as part of the Lenovo acquisition.”

“如果你希望成爲領先的（智能手機）供應商，那麼你必須來到中國。”他表示，“我們把這視爲聯想收購所帶來的巨大協同效應。”

Describing the changes required to provide extensive customisation as a “restart” for the business and its supply chain, he said: “It would be exceptionally hard for someone at massive scale to do this. It was a unique capability that was made possible quite frankly because we were so small.”

奧斯特羅表示，摩托羅拉在中國“重啓”業務及供應鏈，將爲中國市場提供廣泛定製化的產品和服務。他表示：“這樣做對於一家大規模企業尤爲困難。非常坦率的說，我們具有這項獨特的能力，因爲我們在中國的規模很小。”

Customers’ ability to personalise their devices with different colours, finishes and specifications is central to Motorola’s renewed pitch in China, where Xiaomi’s low-cost, well-designed devices have seen the four-year-old company steal huge share from Samsung in the last year. Last month, Xiaomi closed a $1bn round of funding to further its expansion.

允許手機用戶用不同的顏色、修飾品和產品規格實現設備的個性化，是摩托羅拉重新進軍中國的關鍵。在中國，小米的低成本且設計良好的手機產品，去年讓這家僅有4年曆史的公司從三星(Samsung)手中奪取了巨大市場份額。上月，小米完成一輪10億美元的融資，以推動進一步擴張。

Mr Osterloh said Motorola saw an opportunity in Samsung’s sudden weakness, suggesting that the world’s largest mobile maker might even go the way of Nokia and BlackBerry.

奧斯特羅表示，摩托羅拉在三星突然疲弱之際發現了機會。他暗示，三星這家全球最大手機制造商甚至可能會走上諾基亞(Nokia)和黑莓(BlackBerry)的老路。

The combined market share of Lenovo and Motorola today puts it in third place in the smartphone market, behind Apple and Samsung.

聯想與摩托羅拉的合計市場份額目前在智能手機市場排名第三，僅次於蘋果(Apple)和三星。

Retooling its Android-based phones for Chinese consumers will mean replacing Google internet services, such as search and email, with “locally appropriate” alternatives.

摩托羅拉將向中國消費者推出定製化的基於安卓(Android)操作系統的智能手機，這意味着這些手機將無法提供谷歌的搜索和電郵等互聯網服務，轉而採用更“適用於本土”的服務。