Meet the Indiegogo "Transform the Smartphone Challenge" Finalists

For the last few months, developers and entrepreneurs have been busy sharing their ideas for creating the next generation of Moto Mods through our “Transform the Smartphone Challenge” on Indiegogo. In fact, we received more than 700 submissions from 55 countries and 30 states. Today, we’re excited to announce the finalists who received a Moto Mods Development Kit and a Moto Z and have already launched their crowdfunding campaigns. Be sure to check out the Moto Mods Indiegogo collection page regularly for the latest list as remaining finalists launch their crowdfunding pages.

So far, the Indiegogo campaign finalists have dreamed up ideas for Moto Mods ranging from wireless and solar chargers to smart home solutions, walkie-talkies and health monitoring devices. Visit the Moto Mods collection page to learn more and back the concepts -- this is your chance to be an early adopter and support the Moto Mods you want to see come to life.

Looking ahead, in early March, up to 10 grand prize winners will be chosen based on their campaign’s originality, commercial viability, overall use of the Moto Z modular platform and crowdfunding success. Grand prize winners and recent hackathon winners will receive a trip for two to Chicago to present their Moto Mod ideas to our executive development team. While in Chicago, they will receive mentoring and expert guidance from our Moto Mods development team. If they really impress the team, they may even get an investment from Lenovo Capital, which has set aside up to $1 million to help bring the best Moto Mods ideas to market. Investments will be made on terms proposed by Lenovo Capital, and are subject to due diligence and the eligible development team meeting Lenovo Capital's investment criteria.

Whether the concepts were submitted through Indiegogo by individuals and teams from around the world, or created as a result of our recent hackathon events, the Moto Mods ecosystem continues to uncover the limitless possibilities in mobile modularity.

Unlimited Possibilities: Moto Mod Innovation Goes Global

When we launched the Moto Z family of smartphones and Moto Mods, we opened up a new world of possibilities. We shared our commitment to innovation and engaging the developer community by giving them the tools, resources and inspiration to fuel the Moto Mods ecosystem while reducing the barriers to bringing great ideas to life. Since then, we’ve been hosting developer events around the world to support developers as they use our Mod Development Kit to come up with new Moto Mod concepts. 

As we travel the globe, we’re finding no shortage of creative ideas and prototypes for new Moto Mods. At an event we held in India, more than100 developers, engineers, students and partners came together to brainstorm new Moto Mod concepts and discuss how to bring them to life. During two recent developer hackathons -- the Campus Party hackathon in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and the Mod the Future hackathon in San Francisco, CA (where three teams that had previously participated in our New York hackathon also attended) -- participants built prototypes of their concepts. Here are some of the top ideas:

“Baby Care” – Gabriel Lucas Quispe Delgadillo (Buenos Aires)
Imagine a more restful environment for babies. This new Moto Mod concept provides automatic alerts when conditions aren't ideal for a child. For example, users will see real-time indicators about whether the temperature in the room is too hot, too cold or just right.

“Moto Color” – Emanuel Lorenzo and Santiago Zoberman (Buenos Aires)
A color sensor for the visually impaired, Moto Color will emit a sound indicating whether the color being analyzed is red, blue or green. An alternative option would be for Moto Color to emit a vibration, which would vary in intensity depending on the color.

“Solar-Powered Battery Charger” – Ivan Milutimovac (San Francisco)
This Moto Mod concept allows you to charge your Moto Z in sunlight. As opposed to current battery-charging devices on the market that require cables, this one is wireless and is expected to charge the phone to 100 percent in about 10 hours.

“Simple Syrup” – Tal Golbus (San Francisco)
Monitoring blood glucose on-the-go can be a challenge. This concept tracks your blood sugar reading and was created for diabetics who need to carry large diabetes cases with them.

“ModCoholic” – Adnan Ahmed, Afif Syed, Adil Bukhari and Marzuq Khan (San Francisco)
Created by a group of four high school-aged attendees and winner of the Honorable Mention, the ModCoholic concept is a breathalyzer that detects your alcohol level when you breathe into it. If it detects that you are over the legal limit, ModCoholic automatically asks if you need a taxi.



Coming Soon

The next developer hackathon will take place in Shenzhen, China in mid-March. And in the coming months, representatives from the winning hackathon teams will be invited to our headquarters in Chicago to present their ideas to industry leaders and discuss how to bring their Moto Mod concepts to market. If the concept impresses Lenovo Capital, they may receive investment funding. Additionally, winning teams will be entered into the Moto Mods Partner program and will be connected with a dedicated Business Development Mentor.

But Moto Mod ideas don’t just come from hackathons. Visit our Indiegogo “Transform the Smartphone Challenge” campaign to check out some of the other concepts we’ve received and help crowd-fund those you’d like to see come to market.

Magnifying Community Impact: Moto Dedicates Music Studio in São Paulo, Brazil

Our mission: to promote the social inclusion of low-income youth in Brazil through cultural entrepreneurship. The result? “Estúdio Moto” (Moto Studio) in Kemel, a community in the district of Poá, São Paulo.

Estúdio Moto – launching this month in partnership with Instituto Gerando Falcões (IGF) – will give 12 young, aspiring artists from the community a chance to record their music each year. IGF’s efforts are focused on providing education and resources to public school students through music and arts, with this idea born as a result of the IGF-sponsored “MCs of Education” project recently conducted in local public schools that uses rap and funk as teaching tools.

Each artist will also be able to participate in a workshop on social networks and entrepreneurship to learn how to promote their career, as well as training courses in cultural production to help establish a foundation for generating employment and income in their future.

“We wanted to create something that could change the lives and futures of young people in the community,” said Eduardo Lyra, the creator and leader of IGF. “Estúdio Moto is representative of the opportunities companies like Moto are generating to promote true transformation in communities around the world.”

In Brazil, we are excited to continue this partnership with IGF as part of our global commitment to improving lives and communities through the innovative use of technology and entrepreneurship.