Motorola and Indiegogo’s “Transform the Smartphone Challenge” is approaching its final stretch, and the contest finalists’ Indiegogo pages are beginning to crop up on the contest page. So far, there are 12 finalists on the page, all competing for the chance to not only win creative and marketing help with their ideas, but the chance at up to $1 million in funding courtesy of Lenovo. Motorola states that there were so far over 700 entrants and collectively they came from all over, spanning 55 countries and 30 states. More participants will be coming into the running as the contest wears on, each of them having won a Moto Z test unit and a Moto Mod Development Kit. When this phase is all said and done, the top ten finalists out of the bunch will head to Chicago to meet with Moto, and if any of those finalists grab Lenovo’s interest, they may have some serious funding thrown their way.
The 12 finalists, as of this writing, have a collective 280 backers with $15.7 thousand raised between all of them. The top competitor right now is Edge, a Moto Mod that brings rich notifications via customizable LED lighting. The Linc Smart Walkie Talkie is also in the running, and boasts instant text messaging and GPS functionality. The Mico is a solar charging Moto Mod with a 2,200mAh battery built in. The “Ultimate Moto Z Mod” is a Style Shell-esque, very thin mod that brings wireless charging to a phone sorely lacking it by default, and has an IR blaster to boot.
A measuring instrument called InstruMod, a Palm Smart Remote for your IoT devices, a built-in headphones Mod called EarMods, and a portable, physical DAW called Euromod are also in the running at the moment. Finally, the Smart Z Wallet, the Z Sterilizer, a digital recorder Mod, and a digital walkie talkie Mod called Modulator round out the proceedings for now. Those are the only ones on the page currently, but as mentioned above, more will be joining them as the finalists begin putting their Indiegogo pages together. Keep an eye on the page to watch as all the contestants pour in, and perhaps back one or two that catch your eye.
