Several months removed from the launch of the Moto Z, Lenovo is still courting developers to make Moto Mods
Even though the initial wonderment of the modular Moto Z family has worn off, Lenovo isn’t slowing down its thoughts on getting the next generation of Moto Mods out there into the world — and it doesn’t want to make them itself, it wants independent companies to. This all started with the launch of the Moto Mods Developer Kit (MDK), and continues on today with three new initiatives that get more companies (and individuals) interested in making Moto Mods.
Starting today and running through the end of January 2017, hardware developers can design their own Moto Mod and enter to win a Moto Z. Lenovo is also hosting Moto Mod hackathons to bring hardware developers together, with the first one taking place in New York City in December and another in January in San Francisco. Winners of the Moto Mod design contest and hackathons will have the opportunity to meet the Moto Mod development team in Chicago, receive potential investment from the companies and even have their Mods distributed by Verizon.
Moto is putting extra time and money into the Moto Mods program, and for good reason.
Developers who create prototype Moto Mods will also be able to launch a campaign on Indiegogo to raise funding to potentially make it into a consumer-ready product. Indiegogo experts will offer help with setting up the campaign, while Moto and Verizon will help promote the best campaigns to Moto Z owners who would be potential backers of the projects.
Lenovo has already partnered with well-known brands like JBL, Incipio and Hasselblad to launch Moto Mods — which is far better than LG ever did — but in order for the ecosystem of these swappable components to really flourish you need even more participation. Together with the promise from Lenovo that the Moto Mods platform is sticking around for future versions of Moto phones, these developer-focused offerings of help, investment and structure are extremely important.
Whether or not people will eventually back and fund a ton of new Moto Mods on Indiegogo is kind of secondary — the important part is the show of support for independent hardware devs, and getting the MDK into as many hands as possible.
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