How is Motorola simultaneously doing too little and too much with the confusing Edge family?
Although relatively successful in both the US and Europe, Motorola continues to confuse the mobile tech world at large with an incoherent product launch and branding strategy.
This article may contain personal views and opinion from the author.
I'm sure that you all know the names of the top two smartphone vendors in the US, but if I ask you who the market's third-largest player is, you're probably going to have to think a little... and may still get the answer wrong. The same goes for the number two foldable smartphone vendor in Europe as of Q1 2025 (only ranked behind Samsung), and if you're wondering what those achievements could have in common, you should know they belong to the same company.
Clearly, Motorola is doing well both stateside and on the old continent and both in the foldable segment and as far as the mobile industry as a whole is concerned. But could the Lenovo-owned brand do even better in terms of sales volumes across the entire world? I think so, and the latest rumor regarding its next (non-foldable) flagship highlights one of the biggest hurdles the veteran handset maker needs to clear in order to step things up and become a serious rival for Samsung and Apple.
A marketing nightmare
I know what (some of) you are going to say. You don't care about marketing or branding, the only thing you look at when you're thinking of buying a new phone is just how good the phone is. But let's be honest here for a second - no one has the time and energy to do research on dozens and dozens of "different" devices, many of which look incredibly similar at first glance.
That might be one of the reasons why so many people only seriously consider the iPhone 16 family and Samsung Galaxy S25 series when exploring their high-end options right now. Those are also pretty expansive, but they're easy to understand even for the least tech-savvy buyers out there.
The Edge 60 Pro is... not a true flagship. | Image Credit -- PhoneArena
Motorola, meanwhile, sells an Edge 60 Pro that's not exactly on par with the iPhone 16 Pro from a raw power perspective, an Edge 60 Stylus that's by no means a true alternative to Samsung's S Pen-wielding Galaxy S25 Ultra, an Edge 60 Fusion that might as well be called the Edge 60Confusion, not to mention an obviously outdated Edge 50 Ultra that did compete against the Galaxy S24 Ultra... for a few months there last year.
But if the Edge 50 Ultra is a thing, that means a Galaxy S25 Ultra-rivaling Edge 60 Ultra has to be just around the corner, right? According to the legendary Evan Blass, that is in fact wrong, with Motorola instead working on the Edge 70 Ultra already. While common sense would seem to dictate a 2026 launch for the entire Edge 70 family, there's clearly a chance this mysterious flagship will see daylight by the end of 2025, joining all the aforementioned Edge 60 models (as well as their "vanilla" sibling) to create a very awkward and overly convoluted product lineup.
But wait, it gets worse
If it feels like Motorola is doing too much in many European and Asian territories, releasing a new member of the Edge family practically every few weeks or so (not to mention the even more insane Moto G-series upgrade rhythm), the opposite is undeniably true in the US.
Not only is there just one Motorola Edge (2025) model available stateside at the time of this writing, but that happens to be far from the most exciting smartphone released by the company this year. And it's not even that affordable, at least at the moment. Long story short, it's almost like Motorola's American branch is afraid of truly trying to compete with Apple and Samsung, nonetheless evidently still doing enough to win the regional bronze medal as far as shipments go.
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The US-only Motorola Edge 2025 is a largely unremarkable mid-ranger. | Image Credit -- Motorola
Hopefully, that's where the Edge 70 Ultra will come in, reviving the US Edge+ line (maybe under a different name) after an inexplicable break of (at least) two years. I don't have anything to base that hunch on, but a Motorola Edge Plus (2025) or Edge Ultra (2025) device with Snapdragon 8 Elite processing power has to happen, and it has to happen soon.
Of course, that still wouldn't make Motorola's messy product launch and branding strategy make a whole lot of sense, but it might just distract enough people from the illogical absence of the Edge 60 Ultra to give the company a little more time to put things in order.
Adrian, a mobile technology enthusiast since the Nokia 3310 era, has been a dynamic presence in the tech journalism field, contributing to Android Authority, Digital Trends, and Pocketnow before joining PhoneArena in 2018. His expertise spans across various platforms, with a particular fondness for the diversity of the Android ecosystem. Despite the challenges of balancing full-time parenthood with his work, Adrian's passion for tech trends, running, and movies keeps him energized. His commitment to mid-range smartphones has led to an eclectic collection of devices, saved from personal bankruptcy by his preference for 'adequate' over 'overpriced'.
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