Consumer Needs, Not Innovation by Itself, Will Drive Design for Motorola and Lenovo

It’s rare to listen to a company’s executives speak critically about their unsuccessful product. Phrases like “ahead of its time” or “didn’t live up to its potential” are much more common, so once Kouji Kodera, Senior Vice chairman, Product Management, Motorola Mobility talks about the danger of innovating without thinking about the customer’s needs, and specifically points to the Motorola Aura as an example, it catches your attention.

“The Aura was a beautiful phone whose design was eye catching, it was slim and stylish, and it had an amazing round screen,” says Kodera, “but, the customer wasn’t asking for a round screen. Innovation has to solve a problem; design can’t be the only driver.”

“Of course, it also cost people $2,000 so that was a problem too,” Kodera says dryly, eliciting chuckles from the audience.

According to Kodera, Motorola became a way a lot of consumer-focussed company once it absolutely was acquired by Google in 2012, and also the consequent acquisition by Lenovo in 2014 has solely strengthened this.

Kodera, and other leading Lenovo and Motorola executives, met with Gadgets 360 at an event in Delhi to speak concerning Motorola and Lenovo’s product and design thinking.
“The original Moto X brought in options like Moto Voice, that was an  innovation that took into consideration what the customer are looking for,” Kodera added.”

“It’s terribly helpful if you’re cooking or each of your hands are full. So it absolutely was an innovation that created sense. Another innovation was Moto Maker, that was a really complex supply chain problem, but it gave customers a unique phone that individuals loved . At the same time, we didn’t waste effort on trying to be unique. We have a near stock experience, with no bloatware added only in the name of differentiation.”

“And finally, we tend to brought the Moto 360,” he says. “Not solely was it the first Android Wear smart watch, however it absolutely was one amongst the first that was round, that really sounded like a watch. The screen technology we first made for the Aura finally found a fitting home.”