Motorola's focus on innovation continues under Lenovo

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

London - We're a few hours before a multi-country product launch for what many analysts believe to be a new batch of Motorola smartphones. There's a contagious buzz around what Motorola, now under the stewardship of Lenovo, continues to deliver under a challenging and competitive smartphone landscape.

Motorola Mobility has managed, quite admirably, to push out innovative handsets despite being acquired by Google (mostly for a trove of smartphone and wireless patents) and then being sold off to Lenovo late last year. During this time, the company has not only released a notable flagsip yearly in the Moto X, they've also created their most saleable device in emerging markets and the prepaid, contract-free segment in the Moto G.

Motorola isn't as big a player it once was during the heady days of the first generation RAZR, but you wouldn't know this from the rate that it releases new devices and updates its product line.

The company continues to sell well in the US where the Moto X, Moto G and Moto E are readily available as well as the Droid Maxx and Droid Turbo lines which do have many loyal users. In Canada, the Moto 360, Moto G and the new entry-level Moto E have offered buyers a real range in value while consistently offering users the features that rival smartphone makers charge a premium for.

While there have been some leaks leading up to today's launch, no one knows the full scope of the day's revelations. Wearables, it seems, aren't on the menu until sometime in the Fall and focus is strictly on handsets, which is perfectly fine.

For Motorola, handsets have been all about melding innovative designs and materials with functionality and software applications not found anywhere else. Their accessory ecosystem is also surprisingly robust for a company that is not Apple or Samsung, and which doesn't really have a wide-range of distribution.

It looks like Lenovo has granted Motorola free-reign to continue this path and while products revealed here today have been in development pre-acquisition, you get the feeling that Lenovo is all-in and lending full support to this product launch. Stay tuned as we bring the latest news and hands-on from Motorola's London launch event later on today.