Motorola names Rick Osterloh as its new President

Motorola names Rick Osterloh as its new President

There seems to be a fair share of uncertainty brewing over at Motorola these days. Not only did Google catch most of us off guard when it announced its plans to sell Motorola to Lenovo earlier this year, even their CEO Dennis Woodside recently announced he was jumping ship to work for Dropbox.

Despite the upcoming change of hands from Google and the loss of its CEO, Lenovo remains confident that it can help turn Motorola around quickly and has previously hinted about its plans to expand the brand into emerging markets in a more meaningful way.

Rick Osterloh is officially taking Woodside’s place as the top-dog at Motorola

As Motorola marches forward, it’s going to need a strong leader if it wants to keep up the momentum that it has generated over the last year or so. To that end, Motorola has now announced that Rick Osterloh is officially taking Woodside’s place as the top-dog at Motorola.

It’s important to note that Osterloh is not titled as CEO, however, and is instead the president and chief operating officer of the company. Osterloh is no stranger to Motorola, and previously headed up the company’s product management group.

Of course, it’s hard to say whether or not Lenovo plans to keep Osterloh as Motorola’s head once the dust fully settles, though their initial comments regarding the exec’s promotion seem to suggest it is certainly a possibility that Osterloh will continue to be a key part of Motorola during and after the transition to Lenovo.

We are pleased to learn that Motorola has named Rick Osterloh to lead Motorola Mobility, effective today. Rick has a strong track record of success and delivering outstanding innovation for customers. He is a trusted, proven leader. We’re confident in his ability to not only manage a smooth transition at Motorola from Google to Lenovo but also to lead the business forward for continued growth.
Liu Jun
Lenovo executive VP

Motorola still has a long road ahead

For Osterloh and company, Motorola still has a long journey ahead of it, and it’s still hard to say exactly what the company will look like a year from now, let alone five or ten years out.

To Motorola’s credit, they seem to be on the right path, even if it’s a slow-going one. In particular, Motorola has seen a great deal of success with its budget-oriented Moto G. Recently Motorola revealed the Moto G was the best-selling smartphone in the company’s history, beating out popular Droid devices even. Additionally, the Moto G has done very well in select European markets, with Motorola now controlling about 6% of the smartphone market in the UK.

Although the Moto 360 won’t arrive until sometime later this year, the initial excitement generated by the announcement of the company’s unique round smartwatch also seems like a good sign for the company.

What do you think, are you cautiously optimistic about the future of Motorola under Lenovo? Do you think that Osterloh is the right man to led, or do you wish Woodside would have stayed on? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Android Authority