LG may have given up on the dream of swappable smarpthone modules, but Motorola is going full-steam ahead.
The company has already announced that Moto Mods will not only work with the current Moto Z smartphone family, but also upcoming devices launched over the next three years. And at a Mobile World Congress press event today, the company gave a sneak peek at a few new Moto Mods that are on the way.
One is a module that basically turns your phone into a portable Amazon Echo device. It’s a speaker that attaches to the back of the phone which also includes microphones to pick up your voice and send your queries to Amazon’s cloud-based personal assistant software, allowing you to get answers to questions, shop-by-voice, set reminders, and interact with thousands of other Alexa “skills.”
Another new Mod is called the Moto Power Pack, which is yet-another-battery module. This one is relatively affordable though. It’s priced at $49 and it’s expected to be available in March. The Moto Power Pack should add about 50 percent more battery life to a Moto Z phone.
There’s also a new wireless charging module in the works, a Turbo Power mod for quickly charging the phone, and a Gamepad Moto Mod that adds physical gaming buttons and sticks to the sides of the phone.
The Gamepad Mod is expected to launch this summer, and it looks a lot like the Sidepad Mod that’s raising money through a crowfunding campaign as part of Motorola’s developer challenge.