Motorola’s CEO Aymar de Lencquesaing stated at a press event today that the company will likely bring the AR functionality of the company’s Lenovo Phab 2 Pro to its Moto Z line through the release of a snap-on mod.
“The tablet folks [at Lenovo] did a phablet and worked with Google, the Tango team, to come out with a Tango phablet,” he told attending press.
“Going forward, we’ll have to address as a group how do we reconcile the products that are at the fringe? We’re likely to to have a Tango module to basically enable the Z to have Tango functionality.”
The executive also stated that augmented reality is a significant area of interest for the company, saying: “Augmented reality on a phone is a technology that’s likely to stick. Of course we’ll follow, or lead, the market in this area.”
Lenovo, which owns Motorola, debuted the Phab 2 Pro in June 2016 as the world’s first commercial Google Tango device. It features added cameras and sensors in order to facilitate augmented reality, which overlays digital projections on the physical world. The device became available in Canada this month, November 2016, after a period of delays.
The Moto Z and Moto Z Play were announced at the same time as the Phab 2 Pro, but came to market much earlier to mainly positive reviews. The most notable feature of the two devices is Motorola’s attempt at modularity, offering snap-on mods to improve optical zoom or speaker performance. Considering the company already has experience developing hardware for AR with the Phab 2 Pro, the development of an AR mod only makes sense.
Related: Lenovo’s Google Tango-enabled Phab 2 Pro is now available in Canada for $649.99
