Smartphone maker Motorola Mobility, under Chinese tech giant Lenovo, has launched a variety of handset models to improve its competitiveness amid economic challenges.
"Overall, the growth of the smartphone market in Thailand is expected to be slower than last year as high inflation is hindering consumer purchasing power," said Supamas Boonpramuk, mobile business group lead at Lenovo Thailand.
"But smartphone makers are trying to offer products with more attractive prices and features that drive customers' purchasing decisions."
Motorola is rolling out new products with a broad range of prices from 3,000 baht to 30,000 baht to cover entry, medium and premium levels. "We aim to maintain our Moto fanbase and expand to new users," she said.
Previously Motorola focused on handsets costing less than 6,000 baht.
The company's distribution partners include TG Fone, Banana, Synnex, JD Central and True shops, as well as its official store on e-commerce platforms Lazada and Shopee.
Some 40% of its revenue comes from online, versus 60% offline. Motorola aims to increase its sales channel through True's network, such as 7-Eleven convenience stores and Lotus's hypermarkets.
Globally, Motorola's smartphone revenue surged 39% to reach US$7.9 billion in the 2022 fiscal year, with profits growing 110% to $362 million.
Punnawij Sasipolpaisal, sales manager for the mobile business group at Lenovo Thailand, said the company is focusing on making its products price competitive with rivals to make them accessible to a wide range of users.
In the latest line-up, Moto E20 has been introduced as an entry-level handset with a large screen display, a 40-hour battery life and a fingerprint reader, with a price of 3,599 baht.
For the medium range, the Moto G82 5G smartphone offers over a billion shades of colour in its display screen, double stereo speakers, and features that support connections with other devices, such as TVs, game consoles and desktop computers. It is priced at 9,999 baht.
Last month, Motorola introduced Edge30, a premium smartphone with a 50MP camera for 12,999 baht.
Motorola also has the Razr model for the premium market, although the company has no plan to roll out new products in this family soon.
Despite falling prices for new 5G smartphones, there are still a limited number of users with expensive 5G mobile packages, said Mr Punnawij.
"We estimate 5G subscribers are still less than 20% of all mobile subscribers," he said. A switch from 4G to 5G may take longer than the move from 3G to 4G, he added.
