Moto X might become the Moto Z, but we don't know Y

Moto Z

Funny. As Sony shifts its focus away from the Xperia Z series smartphone and to its new Sony Xperia X, Moto might be doing just the opposite.

The upcoming flagship from Moto, which has been rumored to be a metal-clad successor to last year's excellent Moto X series, could actually be called the Moto Z.

As VentureBeat notes, Moto wouldn't be the first manufacturer to switch up the naming convention of its popular flagship. HTC did the same with its HTC 10 and, as I mentioned earlier, Sony is even switching things up, too.

But what's in a name? Well, it could signify a big adjustment in Moto's smartphone efforts. The Moto G4, Moto G4 Plus and Moto G4 Play are each made to suit a global audience, which is made up of people with a variety of needs and budgets. The Moto Z, or so it will be called if the name sticks, will be more narrowly focused to those who want performance and oodles of options.

MotoModularity

Speaking of options, we reported last week that, in addition to the metal build, the upcoming Moto flagship will offer some modular functionality by way of its swappable backplates, or "Amps". But new information points to these modular mods, likely to be debuted at Lenovo's Tech World on June 9, will instead be called "MotoMods".

Sure, this rumored name is more likely to stick because it's rather similar to Moto Maker. But, like the LG G5 and its modular "Friends", it's hard to say if a friendlier name will help modularity in the smartphone space appeal to a large enough crowd to make them viable in the long run.

Additionally, like each of Moto's smartphone models, the Moto Z might be launching with a few options. Two codenamed devices, the Vertex and Vector Thin, could materialize as the Moto Z Play and Moto Z Style, respectively.

Via VentureBeat

Cameron Faulkner

Cameron is a writer at The Verge, focused on reviews, deals coverage, and news. He wrote for magazines and websites such as The Verge, TechRadar, Practical Photoshop, Polygon, Eater and Al Bawaba.