Lenovo keeps Moto in the game, but odds of victory are long

[Commentary] Could Motorola -- and Chicago -- end up better off with Google’s sale of the handset maker to Lenovo?

“Lenovo is not anywhere near as sexy as Google is. It's a blow to Chicago's connectivity back to Silicon Valley," said Michael Marasco, director of the Farley Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Northwestern University. "But Lenovo has a history of thinking long term, and it's a global leader." And through the deal, he notes, Chicago's tech community achieves greater "connectivity into Asia, which is a bigger market.” The bigger issue for the city and the tech community is saving the phone maker, a herculean challenge that eluded three Motorola leaders and Google, regarded as one of the smartest companies in technology. “It's a better deal for Motorola,” said Neil Mawston, an analyst at Strategy Analytics. “Instead of a software maker controlling a hardware maker, it's a hardware maker controlling them. Lenovo has a successful track record of growing IBM's PC business globally.” After the acquisition, Lenovo will be No. 3, with 6 percent of the smartphone market, which accounts for most of the cellphone industry's profit, according to Strategy Analytics. Samsung is No. 1 with 32 percent of shipments, followed by Apple, with 15 percent. Lenovo, best known as one of the world's top sellers of PCs, already is in the phone business. But while it's one of the top phone makers in China, the world's biggest market, Lenovo has no presence in the US, the world's most lucrative market.