Moto X5 may not see light of day following rumored Chicago office layoffs

The Lenovo-owned Motorola could have canned its plans to launch the Moto X5, a would-be successor to the well-received Moto X4. According, Android Police claims the move to drop the X5 comes as Lenovo is rumored to be laying off even more of its Motorola workforce, this time from its Chicago office. A leaked image, purportedly of the Moto X5, showed that it had adopted an iPhone X-style notch, which would have seen it swamped by numerous Android phones following the same trend.

To help try right the ship at Motorola, the company plans on streamlining its product portfolio to include just the E, G and Z series smartphones. The X series was initiated under Google’s stewardship and promised to deliver a new kind of smartphone platform that included always-on display technology and always-on voice recognition tech. Although it was never a monster hit itself, the X series certainly helped to set the direction for future of smartphones.

Motorola will also start to streamline its Moto Mods line up, focusing only on mods that are profitable, rather than some of the more idiosyncratic mods like its gamepads. This means that the mods that it will continue to sell for its Z series will likely focus on battery packs and style mods, although a freshly leaked VR headset mod could still make the cut. Lenovo once claimed that it could make Motorola profitable within two quarters of its acquisition from Google, but the once iconic smartphone brand has continued to languish under its auspices.

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