The death of Project Ara may have set the idea of 'modular phones' back a little, but Motorola is keeping the dream alive through serious support for its Moto Mods accessories.
In fact, the company plans to release at least 12 new ones each year, according to CNET, with John Touvannas, Lenovo’s Moto Mods director, adding that “our goal is to get more Mods out this year than we did last year, no question”.
These Mods are more than just accessories, instead acting as semi-permanent additions to your phone to expand and augment its functionality.
Plenty to choose from
A steady stream of Moto Mods have already been launched, including the recent Hasselblad True Zoom, which adds a 10x optical zoom lens to the Moto Z.
But future Moto Mods could be even more exciting, with Lenovo letting slip that a Tango module to add augmented reality skills is likely in future, while an e-reader, a game controller and even a breathalyzer are all potential Mods too.
This embracing of modular components is a bit surprising, given that LG tried something similar with the LG G5, but seemed to quickly abandon the idea, with only a couple of modules on the market and none expected for the LG G6.
Motorola is pushing ahead with its modular game as a key part of its handset plans, with an earlier blog post revealing that the Mods it makes will be supported by future generations of Moto Z phones.
This isn’t quite the fully modular future some might have been hoping for, but it's a good compromise in a world where being able to switch out core components doesn't seem as possible as some think it should be.
- The Moto Z (2017) could have a large Mod selection from day one
