Lenovo-owned Motorola intends to bring the modular system found on its flagship Moto Z device to more affordable devices in 2018, and will offer different quality Mods in the same categories to cater to different budgets.
That’s according to Yang Yuanqing, Lenovo chairman and CEO. Yuanqing made the comments during a press briefing at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Monday.
“We are thinking about how to bring the modular concept into the mainstream,” Yuanqing says. “It will happen next year.” Asked whether this means the price of Mods will fall to match the proposed cheaper devices to support them, Yuanqing says price points will “definitely” fall on some future devices.
Consumers will in future be able to choose from different Mods within the same category. Users looking for a speaker Mod, for example, will in future be able to choose between a “premier speaker, mainstream or entry-level one,” Yuanqing explains.
And users investing in a future mid-range or entry-level Moto Z (whatever it might be called) can rest assured their device will work with any existing Mods, or those yet to come. “Everything must be compatible,” Yuanqing says. “And Moto Z must be an open platform”.
The focus for Motorola is on giving customers as much choice as possible, even if that means rival companies building similar Mods. During its Sunday press conference, Lenovo hinted at plans for a Mod that will support Amazon’s Alexa digital voice assistant. But that’s just the start.
“We have another prototype in the works,” Yuanqing says. “It’s a Mod that connects with your TV so that you can smoothly stream your video from your smartphone.”
Motorola has previously reassured consumers that at least three generations of Moto devices will support the Mods. Given the Moto Z is only generation one, there’s plenty of room for great strides to be made yet. A Nespresso-making Mod that writes your name in you espresso’s crema? If we can design it, Motorola suggests it’ll at least consider making it.