November 6, 2011 10:40 pm EDT

Switched On: Motorola's manic modularity

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

When newly independent Motorola Mobility introduced its Atrix handset on AT&T at CES, the smartphone was generally well-received. But what drew more attention was the range of accessories that the company has continued to support through other high-end launches such as those of the Photon on Sprint and the Droid Bionic on Verizon.

These products now include a car dock for navigation, HDMI dock for entertainment, and lapdock for enhanced productivity. Motorola wasn't the first company to introduce an HDMI dock, and Asus' Padfone embeds a handset more directly into another device than do Motorola's products. Taken together, though, the Motorola dock derby best positions the handset as the heart of a mobile lifestyle -- one that can be easily transplanted so that it can overcome the limitations of its native form factor. It is a fitting push for one of the few smartphone companies not vested in other traditional electronic devices such as PCs or televisions.

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Switched On: Motorola's manic modularity originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 06 Nov 2011 17:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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