Lenovo

Lenovo is a Chinese consumer electronics company, best known for its line of ThinkPad computers but also for its phones and tablets that run Android. Its line of computers tends to lean towards business and education users, while its tablets and phones are more focused on the consumer end of the market.

Though Lenovo has struggled to find relevance with its phones in Western markets, they are one of the top manufacturers of phones in China. Its phones are highly tailored to Asian markets, often with large screens and interesting material choices. The software is also highly customized for the local markets, straying quite widely from the stock Android experience.

Even though its phones haven't caught on in the West, its tablets have carved out a small bit of the market because of their high build quality and relatively low cost compared to the competition. Much like its lower-end IdeaPad lineup of laptops, Lenovo's tablet range covers a variety of sizes, are built to last and have a big footprint in many big box and retail stores.

As part of its strategy to expand its mobile device market share out to other areas in the world, Lenovo purchased Motorola from Google in January 2014 for $2.91 billion. Lenovo's acquisition of Motorola came as somewhat of a surprise considering the company had only been part of Google for a short period of time, and Lenovo already had a successful smartphone business in China. What Motorola brings to the table, however, is a very strong brand name in markets where Lenovo doesn't have much mind share, as well as carrier relationships in Western markets.

Lenovo has indicated that it plans to have Motorola, which is headquartered in Chicago, run as an independent company with its own branding and devices. It's unclear how much sharing of product design, information or marketing will occur between the two companies when they are combined.