Motorola back to China market

"We come to China as a challenger," said Rick Osterloh, Motorola's president and chief operating officer, as he pledged to offer buyers the chance to design their own gadgets.

An online customer design program named Motorola Maker allows buyers to choose both the material and color of their phone case as well as the storage space available inside their phone.

Wang Jingwen, a Shanghai-based analyst from Canalys China, said Lenovo also has the chance to cooperate with Google in producing Nexus products after the Motorola buyout. Google is updating the world's most popular smartphone OS Android, which is also used in Motorola and Lenovo handsets.

"More importantly, (after buying Motorola) Lenovo gains access to a large patent portfolio which will be very useful for vendor's overseas expansion," Wang said.

Motorola's new China strategy does not include its popular wearable technology, however.

The highly anticipated smart watch, the Moto360－run on Google Inc's Google Wear operating system－is not currently available on the Chinese mainland, but Osterloh said it will be later this year.

Although the growth in smartphone sales slowed significantly last year, China remains the world's most valuable handset market.

A recent report from technology consultancy IDC said growing demand in smaller cities and increasing demand for fourth-generation telecom networks will provide new opportunities for smartphone vendors.

IDC estimates that in future more than 90 percent of the country will have 4G signal coverage.