Motorola just launched its latest generation of the Moto G, with three phones — the G6, G6 Plus and G6 Play — that bear little resemblance to the humble original Moto G from 2013. Though the size, features and specs of the G series have evolved heavily over the last five years, the mission is still the same: be a phone for the masses that's affordable but also has an experience beyond its price. And apparently, it's worked — Motorola's Sergio Buniac, whom I spoke with prior to the G6 launch, said that Motorola has sold over 70 million Moto G series smartphones since the line launched.
Any company would love to have a phone line that sold 70 million phones in just five years.
That's 70 million phones in five years, or an average of 12 million phones per year. And considering sales numbers were initially quite low, selling only a few million per year, 2016 and 2017 have obviously been enormous for the Moto G series and Motorola as a whole. Even though the Moto E and lower-end Moto Z Play series phones have been solid growth areas for Motorola in some markets, the Moto G has driven a large portion of its success since being acquired by Lenovo in 2014 (opens in new tab). Buoyed by what have clearly been strong Moto G sales, Motorola has taken a top-2 position across the biggest markets in Latin America, and also become the No. 1 unlocked phone brand in the U.S.
Motorola sees the growth continuing on an aggressive upswing as well. Mr. Buniac said that within this generation of Moto G phones, the company's goal is to reach 100 million total sales. Considering these phones will be on sale for roughly 18 months, that's an extremely impressive number. The new Moto G6 series won't be on sale in the U.S. for a few weeks, but went on sale on announcement day in Brazil and other Latin American countries — and I expect that sales were strong from the start.
