Motorola held a RAZR launch event in New York City today. The key headline is that there will be three new RAZR flip smartphones hitting the market soon, priced at about $599, $999, and $1299. Motorola President, Sergio Buniac, introduced the line-up of smartphones, tablets, PCs, ear buds, and watches, which will all be increasingly connected with new AI features. Per Counterpoint Research data, Moto has grown its smartphone shipments by 23% in 2024 and has sold about three million flip smartphones since 2022. Motorola’s goal is to further gain share within premium price tiers via this line-up of flip smartphones and the value of ‘Moto AI’. Key takeaways from the event:

3 RAZRs were introduced:

• RAZR Ultra $1299, QCOM Snapdragon 8 Elite, 7” internal pOLED display 4500 nits and 4” external display, 3 50MP cameras (main, ultrawide, selfie)

• RAZR + $999, QCOM Snapdragon 8S Gen 3, 6.9” internal pOLED display and 4” external display, 2 50MP back cameras and 32MP selfie

• RAZR  $599, MTK 7400x, 6.9” FHD internal display and 3.6” external display, 50MP main camera, 13MP ultra-wide, and a 32MP selfie

• About 1/3 of the event was dedicated to AI. Motos Nicole Hagen and Angelina Gomez described the improvements of ‘Moto AI’, which has shortcuts for ‘ask or search’, ‘pay attention’, ‘remember this’, ‘catch me up’, image studio and playlist studio (complete details in our videos and more detailed write-ups on the Counterpoint website).

• Moto is working closely with AI partners. On stage, describing new AI applications were Aravin Srinivas of Perplexity, Zaheed Sabur of Google, and Ash Jhaveri of Meta. Microsoft is another key AI partner for Moto. ‘Moto AI’ will focus on personalization and prediction-learning, and with the ability to suggest the most appropriate AI search engine. There will be 3-month free trials for Perplexity and Gemini. Moto will spend marketing dollars on key features and will have some exclusives under ‘Moto AI’. It’s early, but there are some interesting developments that will help consumers take advantage of AI on Moto hardware.

• Partnerships with Pantone and Alcantara are producing vibrant colors and interesting back cover materials (think wood, other matte finishes). Over 65% of flip sales are ‘stretch’ colors. Look for more vibrant colors such as Viva Magenta and Coffee Mouse to continue!

The launch of three flip smartphones in different price tiers is a positive for Moto. The work on the AI story continues, but there is positive momentum from the ‘Moto AI’ offering. 2025 will be a volatile year for the smartphone ecosystem. We expect to see Moto continue to grow its shipments and global market share. @counterpointresearch Motorola Mobility (a Lenovo Company)