The Future of Android 3D and MAKEwithMOTO

Companies like Motorola are looking even more towards the future with recently introducing 3D printing to its modular phone, Ara. The company’s MAKEwithMOTO team had been on the road the past six months with a truck called Sticky. The team has been working hard on conducting “make-a-thons” across the United States using hackable Motorola smartphones. High end 3D printing equipment were also used. The phone is currently being designed for the global mass market. 3D has a lot of capabilities but the evolution in maturity still is a ways to go.

According to Gartner, worldwide shipments of 3D printers are expected to grow 75 percent in 2014 followed by a near doubling of unit shipments in 2015. While very expensive “additive manufacturing” devices have been around for 20 years, the market for devices ranging from $50,000 to $500, and with commensurate material and build capabilities, is nascent yet growing rapidly. The consumer market hype has made organizations aware of the fact 3D printing is a real, viable and cost-effective means to reduce costs through improved designs, streamlined prototyping and short-run manufacturing.

Motorola is hitting the road in a velcro-clad Sprinter van full of the latest prototyping tools (3D printers, laser cutters, soldering stations, etc) to connect and create with young makers states the company. Over the course of a 5-month road trip, the MAKEwithMOTO crew will visit 12 universities and 4 Maker Faires to help student teams turn hardware/software unlocked versions of Motorola's latest smartphones into their dream device.

About MAKEwithMOTO

We are all creators, thinkers, dreamers, inventors, doers and makers. And so MAKEwithMOTO is dedicated to the inner maker in all of us. We believe that when you connect people and their ideas with the tools they need to make them real, amazing things can happen.

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