Here are the 12 finalists from Motorola's Moto Mods developer contest

Motorola kicked off the "Transform the Smartphone Challenge" last November, in which the company turned to third-party developers to come up with innovative ideas for future Moto Mods. After receiving over 700 submissions from 55 countries and 30 states, Motorola has picked out 12 finalists, with the shortlisted submissions now raising money on Indiegogo to bring their projects to life. Each finalist received a Moto Mods Development Kit as well as a Moto Z handset, and their concepts are now ready to be crowdsourced.

The final selections include a solar battery mod, an add-on that brings RGB lighting to the phone along with wireless charging, a digital recorder add-on, and even one that can be used as a universal controller for your smart home devices. Here's the full list of shortlisted mods:

Some of the ideas for the Moto Mods are certainly interesting, and Motorola has said that it will pick ten grand winners next month based on originality of the concept, commercial viability, and "overall use of the Moto Z modular platform and crowdfunding success."

The grand prize winners will get to visit Motorola's offices in Chicago and pitch their mods to the company's executive development team, while receiving mentoring and guidance. They also stand to secure an investment from Lenovo Capital — which set up a $1 million fund to spur new Moto Mod development — to bring their product to market.

See at Indiegogo

Harish Jonnalagadda
Senior Editor - Asia

Harish Jonnalagadda is a Senior Editor overseeing Asia at Android Central. He leads the site's coverage of Chinese phone brands, contributing to reviews, features, and buying guides. He also writes about storage servers, audio products, and the semiconductor industry. Contact him on Twitter at @chunkynerd.