Unlike TCL Mobile, who has seen their smartphone business plunge in Australia, after the appointment of new Chinese management, arch-rival Motorola, who also appointed new management to run the local business, at the same time as TCL has seen their revenues double in Australia.
According to recent filings with the Australian Securities and Investment Commission Motorola, a Lenovo owned Company, delivered revenues as of December 31, 2021, of $25.5M Vs $12.5M in December 2020, in the same period that TCL revenues went from $21.5M to $13.3M.
Motorola who are set to shortly launch a new Razr foldable up against the Samsung Flip in Australia, have also taken the third spot in the smartphone market behind Samsung and Apple, from the struggling TCL Communications who appointed Chinese management to run the business in Australia after dropping the successful Alcatel smartphone brand.
TCL has been promising for years to launch a foldable device and as far back as 2019 were showing ChannelNews fold and flip models that they said would be launched “shortly” but to date they have not eventuated.

Kurt Bonnici, Head of Motorola Australia, and New Zealand
Motorola a Lenovo owned Company appointed Kurt Bonnici, Head of Motorola Australia, and New Zealand at the same time that TCL was appointing new management, they also expanded the operational team while also growing retail partners.
This has resulted in a dramatic turnaround in the business with JB HI Fi ranging 21 Motorola smartphones Vs three TCL sub $600 smartphones. Also ranging Motorola smartphones are Australia’s three major carriers, Telstra, Vodafone, and Optus with Vodafone the only carrier range one TCL model smartphone.
Motorola also delivered a profit of $347,531 at December 2021 up from $287,400 in 2020, management claim that they witnessed a boom in demand for their smartphones when lockdown restrictions were lifted.
The business was able to improve shipments with the business claiming that The pandemic has had a positive impact on Motorola” during 2021.
During the year Motorola lifted marketing expenditure to $2.26M. TCL claimed that they spent $1.7M on marketing only for their sales to go backwards.
Motorola also had no write down of inventory in 2021, and while TCL received $2.5M from their Hong Kong based parent Company in 2021 and $4.27M in 2020, Motorola operations in Australia did not take any borrowings from a parent Company during the past two years.