This past summer saw two smartphone manufacturers try to incorporate some modular concepts into their flagship phones with LG and Lenovo employing the strategy. In the case of LG, the implementation of modules was fairly slick for the LG G5, but the company dropped the ball on items like availability, pricing and building an ecosystem. Hoping to avoid that same fate, Lenovo has announced the availability of a development kit geared toward enabling anyone to create a Moto Mod that will work on a Moto Z device.
The Moto Mods Development Kit (MDK) was released in the U.S. initially and is now also available in China, Europe, and South America. The kit will also be available in Canada starting on October 5th. According to the official Motorola blog posting, the MDK includes the same tools that Motorola uses internally to develop the Moto Mods they are bringing to market, like a movie projector, speaker, or an enhanced camera.
The availability of the MDK is a sign that Lenovo recognizes they need to get an active market going for Moto Mods if they are going to be a commercial success. We will now have to wait to see what creative ideas hit the retail market to capitalize on Lenovo's willingness to open the ecosystem up to others.
For a brief introduction to the MDK, Motorola released the following video explaining how anyone can create their own Moto Mod. The kit itself includes several pieces of hardware to help developers accelerate their efforts to create a Moto Mod. Developers will have to invest in a Moto Z in addition to the MDK.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLSLrzmcXGM
source: Motorola Blog
