Motorola is the smartphone brand to watch, as they carve out market share in Australia by stripping share from Chinese brands such as TCL, Realme and Oppo, now they are set to have a crack at the affordable premium and premium markets.

During the past 12 months the business has increased their share of the highly competitive mobile market without taking a crack at Samsung or Apple in the premium market, but that could be about to change with a new foldable Razr about to be launched.

According to Kurt Bonnici, who was promoted from business development manager to head of Motorola Australia and New Zealand the Lenovo owned business has grown over 250% during the past two years.

Kurt Bonnici, the head of Motorola Australia and New Zealand

After building share in the sub $400 market where they have taken share away from the likes of TCL whose Alcatel brand once dominated and at one stage held the #3 position in the market, Motorola is now building “Value into devices” according to Bonnici by delivering low cost 5G devices, with better battery life and “good cameras”. According to Bonnici the business has deliberately targeted the entry level and mid-market, with the business set to launch a new $399, G62 5G model today.

A big plus for the brand whose products is developed in Chicago, in the USA, China and Brazil is that carriers in Australia including Optus, Telstra and Vodafone are back selling Motorola handsets along with mainstream retailers such as JB Hi Fi, The Good Guys and Harvey Norman.

At JB Hi Fi there are 23 Motorola handsets listed Vs 0 Realme, 1 TCL model and 0 Alcatel handsets.

Bonnici claims that “power management” is a key selling point in the sub $400 market and that by combing looks, 5G and power management along with “a good camera” Motorola has been able to meet the expectation of consumers who are looking for a value model handset.

In Australia, a big battle could be looming shortly for the Lenovo owned brand with Samsung set to launch a new range of foldable smartphones including an entry level model that could be sub $1,000.

Motorola has already had a go at trying to get back into the foldable market, which they once dominated with their Razr mobile, which at one stage was the #1 flip phone in Australia.

The exercised failed with their overpriced $2,499 Razr model seen as lacking when it came to performance and specs.

Now Motorola is set to launch a new Razr model in an effort to take on Samsung.

This week a new video emerged of the new Razr clamshell device which appears to have two cameras mounted on the rear of the device.

The device will house a 50-megapixel sensor while ultrawide photography will be handled by a 13-megapixel camera.

Compared to the previous model the new 2022 Razr has a larger front display screen up from 2.7-inch to a full 3-inches, it’s also larger in size.

When opened up users will get a 6.7-inch diagonal display screen which is larger than the 6.2-inch OLED panel seen on the previous Moto Razr 5G.

Designers have also removed the thick riser seen on the bottom of the old model with the new device code named Maven, appearing to be more stylish with a flat design that appears to fit snuggly in a hand.

The device will be powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 processor which is the same processor being launched in the new top end Samsung foldable smartphones.

cost around the $1,000 mark to maintain a competitive edge against rivals like the Moto Razr 2022.

Bonnici has not said when or if the new Razr will be launched in Australia this year however retailers are claiming that they expect to see a new device “This year”.