Plenty dismissed modularity (the concept of making a phone’s innards swappable and upgradeable) the first time around. And for good reason. Like just about..<\/b>
\nPlenty dismissed modularity (the concept of making a phone\u2019s innards swappable and upgradeable) the first time around. And for good reason. Like just about every other gimmick in smartphoneland, the idea has been tried and abandoned more times than anyone cares to mention. With the announcement of the second generation Moto Z, however, the Motorola is not only committed to the idea of modular smartphones \u2013 it\u2019s making the line its flagship.
It\u2019s a pretty gutsy stance from the company. The idea of the first one was laughed off by some on arrival, but Motorola changed minds with what turned out to be a really good phone, Mods or no. I reviewed it a while back, and I liked it. A lot more than I thought I would.
The device\u2019s hardware was solid and the execution was there. The super-thin phone, coupled with the magnetic backing that powered the devices. If there was any major downside on that first generation Z, it was the lack of Mods at launch. The promise was there, but the execution was limited. But after LG\u2019s badly fumbled execution with the G5, the phone was breath of fresh air.
The company added a few more in the intervening months and announced plans to release an average four a quarter this year \u2013 a commitment it tells me it plans to keep. It\u2019s also opened up prototypes to third-parties and had a handful of hackathons across the globe in hopes of getting developers more interested in creating for the platform. Here\u2019s one with a breathalyzer and a baby monitor.
The Moto Z2 Play ups the ante, but only slightly. In addition to a better looking, cloth-covered version of the SoundBoost kickstand speaker, the phone will be launching alongside a fast charging battery pack, shells with wireless charging built-in and a GamePad.
All were present at a briefing I attended, but I can\u2019 t show you a picture of the GamePad, since it wasn\u2019 t a final version. And, of course, the mods and phones are backward compatible, so users can mix and match with last year\u2019s hardware.
By way of explanation, the old Ion iCade controller should give you a pretty good idea of what Motorola\u2019s working on. The case positions gaming controls on either side of the screen, making for a really, really long phone. Not groundbreaking and honestly, pretty clunky, but a nice addition to the overall ecosystem. Still, the company is going to need at least double its current Mod offering to make the system a success.
That said, Motorola apparently hasn\u2019 t had a problem moving product. The company doesn\u2019 t break out phone sales for the Z, but it says it\u2019s sold \u201cmillions\u201d of the device \u2013 admittedly broad, but definitely a victory for a device that really could have feasibly tanked the company\u2019s ambitions a la the G5. And apparently high enough to warrant making this second generation product the centerpiece of its handset line.
And with this week\u2019s Essential announcement, Andy Rubin simultaneously complimented and threw some serious shade at the Moto Z system. The Android father complimented the company\u2019s embrace of modularity, while calling its execution flawed, pointing to its full-back system, which limits the product\u2019s form factor moving forward. Even still, a slight vindication for the mainstreaming of modular phones.
Sales of the Mods, meanwhile, aren\u2019 t quite as impressive. Motorola\u2019s internal research says that Mods are, no surprise, the primary driving factor in purchasing the product \u2014 but users who buy Mods are picking up between one and two per device. A Moto rep tells me that it\u2019s closer to two than one\u2026 but when swappable backs are the device\u2019s whole raison d\u2019 etre, that\u2019s not exactly selling like hot cakes.
The middling numbers are probably due in part to the fact that Mod selection was pretty limited. Launching a modular phone without sufficient modules is a bit like launching a video game system with little in the way of titles \u2013 it\u2019s an easy way to shoot yourself in the foot right out of the gate. And while speakers and battery packs are great, what functionality does the Moto Z offer that you can\u2019 t already get from basically every phone?
But the Mod selection will continue to grow \u2013 I saw a compelling one at the event that I\u2019 m not supposed to talk about yet \u2013 and the company says there are plenty more on the way, including some from winners of the hackathons, which the company will help developers make real.
As for the phone\u2019s hardware (which is admittedly somewhat secondary) , the phone\u2019s specs are okay. But keep in mind, with the first gen, the Play was the low-end device, so you can probably expect a higher end flagship to be added to the second generation line soon. The company ditched the touch buttons, instead sticking all of that functionality into the elongated fingerprint reader, to save some space up front, so you can, say, swipe left to go back.
As reported previously, the headphone jack is back on the Play \u2013 that\u2019s in part due to the company\u2019s attempt to broaden the Z line to more users. Ditching the jack is a good way to alienate potential customers who don\u2019 t have the funds to switch all of their accessories to Bluetooth. Though the company tells me that it still sees the wired headphone getting phased out \u2013 though perhaps not as quickly as others had initially thought.
But can Motorola build upon the momentum of the Z with this second generation? The novelty of the first batch has worn off a bit, and while the company is committed to the project as its flagship line, it still has a ways to go as far churning out mods at a pace that will really drive consumption.
For now, in spite of that early success, the Z line still feels like a gamble. That goes double for parent company Lenovo, which has been struggling in the PC department. The Moto reps I spoke with told me to expect modularity on even more of its devices moving forward. If that\u2019s the case, it\u2019s time to really start hauling ass on developing those mods.<\/p>\n

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Similarity rank: 5.4<\/div>\n

Sentiment rank: 0.6<\/div>\n

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