In short: The developers behind the physical keyboard Moto Mod that was being developed for Moto Z smartphones, has been cancelled. The team posted an update on Indiegogo on Wednesday, noting that the project had been cancelled. It cited that there was no real interest from businesses willing to sell this Mod for Motorola smartphones – including Motorola. The team also noted that it would be unfeasible for them to do the marketing for this Moto Mod themselves, since it is essentially useless without a Moto Z smartphone.
Background: When Motorola launched the Moto Z back in 2016, it had opened up the Moto Mod space to third-party developers and hardware makers. Not to many surfaced, but this sliding physical keyboard Mod did appear. It got plenty of attention on Indiegogo, since there were many that still want that physical keyboard. It was shown off at CES earlier this year in fact, and it got a ton of attention. However, since it only works with the Moto Z line of smartphones, the market that it could sell this Mod to was already pretty limited.
The impact: This is definitely bad news for those that wanted to pick up this Mod for their Moto Z smartphone. But the team isn’t giving up completely. It is working on Q-device, which is a physical keyboard and a smartphone. The company says that it is much thinner than any Moto Z and the Moto Mod that they were working on. It also has higher specs than the current Moto Z smartphones (likely meaning that it has a Snapdragon 845 inside), and is also being made of premium materials and not plastic. The Q-device is expected to launch in Q4 of this year, and it will not be a crowdfunded smartphone. That is a good thing, because those crowdfunded smartphones usually get delayed left and right and may never actually launch. See, Saygus.