Google made a surprise announcement at the end of January that confirmed it was selling Motorola to Lenovo for $2.91 billion, but the search giant seemingly forgot to tell us that it made a big investment in the Chinese consumer electronics manufacturer the following day.
Reuters reports that Google will pay Lenovo $750 million for a 5.94 percent stake in the company.
Motorola has officially teamed up with Flipkart, India’s largest e-commerce website, to launch its ultra-affordable mid-range smartphone, the Moto G, in India, for a budget-friendly ₹12,499 ($200) for the 8GB model and ₹13,999 ($225) for the 16GB variant. Both handsets come unlocked free of any nasty contracts and all taxes and shipping charges have been included.
It’s been just over three months since Google made Android 4.4 KitKat available to the public, but only 1.8 percent of Android-powered devices are running it. Jelly Bean continues to have the largest reach with a 60.7 percent share — up from 60.1 percent in January — while Gingerbread’s share is slowly but surely getting smaller.
The Motorola Moto X can already be snapped up for £80 ($132) cheaper than its recommended retail price in the United Kingdom, thanks to retailer Clove.co.uk. The handset only went on sale in Britain on Wednesday, January 29, and most are charging around £380 ($625) for the flagship device.
Project Ara
Google shocked us all on Wednesday when it announced that it had sold Motorola to Lenovo less than two years after it was acquired, but the search giant is holding onto certain parts of the company.
Not only will it keep the vast majority of Motorola’s massive patent portfolio, but it’s also maintaing a firm grip on the Advanced Technology and Projects group, which is responsible for the Project Ara modular phone.
