The comments here remind me of the classic debate of monolithic kernel vs micro kernels; It ends up with the same result that the ecosystem required for the modular components causes too much operational bloat.
Why Phonebloks Will Never Happen
81–90 of 107 posts
Re: Why Phonebloks Will Never Happen
#82The only thing that will make something like this plausible and sought-after is expensive e-waste disposal. We have to charge the actual costs of the waste to the waste producers.
Right now that waste cost is practically invisible to the consumer, much less the manufacturer. If the true waste costs (health impacts, polluted water supplies, diminishing limited resources) were factored into the decision to get a "new" phone, computer, etc. then there'd possibly be some desire for this type of device. But right now, I can't see this happening without that market force.
Re: Why Phonebloks Will Never Happen
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
The point of the article isn't really "this can't be done"; but "if this is done, it's inferior to a non-modular phone". Even perfectly functioning modular plugins take up extra space - a "classic" phone can instead either be smaller/thinner, or put in a bit extra battery in those cubicmillimetres; which both make the "same" phone better. Modularity imposes a cost, it's a tradeoff - and even for laptops we're seeing…
>The point of the article isn't really "this can't be done"; but "if this is done, it's inferior to a non-modular phone". And it's only inferior if you choose to look at it through that lens. As far as I can see, the idea is that modularity brings its own benefits, which, for some people, might outweigh the perceived disadvantages. If someone's already decided they'd never be in the market for a modular phone because…
It's gonna be more expensive, bigger, slower, and have a smaller battery life. What's in it to like?
For less than the price of the modular version, you can get a non-modular one with all the functionality included.
Re: Why Phonebloks Will Never Happen
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
The core problem is basic math: X+Y > X. (For positive values, of course.) Modern phones are marvels of stripping away everything not completely necessary, with the result that they're the size they are. Adding modularity means adding enclosures around the modules, which adds size and weight - and for something as small as a phone, practical physical limits of enclosures add up to a non-trivial increase in size. Sepa…
I totally take your point about the tradeoff, but that's the point, isn't it? For the people who don't fit into the "customers who prefer more performance" bucket (for instance), or any of the other buckets that can be served by a modular approach, where do they turn? How do we get there from here? It's at least worth looking at the map.
They buy a different phone. There is more than one to choose from.
Re: Why Phonebloks Will Never Happen
#85The only thing that will make something like this plausible and sought-after is expensive e-waste disposal. We have to charge the actual costs of the waste to the waste producers. Right now that waste cost is practically invisible to the consumer, much less the manufacturer. If the true waste costs (health impacts, polluted water supplies, diminishing limited resources) were factored into the decision to get a "new"…
Honestly, it's probably not that bad. You could cast all the old electronics in solid, impermeable concrete blocks and only pay pennies per phone.
Re: Why Phonebloks Will Never Happen
#86This reminds me very much of what [Bug Labs] ( http://buglabs.net/products/blocks ) is doing. Building modular hardware components for rapid prototyping and development. Cool stuff.
That's exactly what I thought of, as well.
Yeah I interned there a couple of years ago. Honestly very surprised they're not more well known in the tech community.
Re: Why Phonebloks Will Never Happen
#87So far I've not heard "this can't be done." All I've heard is "I don't know how this might be done." Huge difference there. I also hear a fair bit of "this shouldn't be done", which I find incredibly disappointing. Here's a hypothetical: we already know how to do noisy, shared-media device interconnects. It's called 802.11. Look at the size of wifi adapters: you can get a usable signal that works over meters from som…
I think the idea is really nice. Calls for some sort of standard for the manufacturers, that they converge on the Standard Shipping Container spec for mobile tech. This sort of happened with computer parts. Even Apple computers have interchangeable parts with their PC brethren, even the CPU in some cases. What you would need to do is motivate the hardware manufacturers to settle on the Container spec and the basic bo…
Have you seen a modern Apple like the Air and Macbook Pro Retina? The battery is a formless bag glued into the case wherever there is room. The "hard" drive is an SSD chip soldered to the board. The memory is not even replaceable any more.
Re: Why Phonebloks Will Never Happen
#88The only thing that will make something like this plausible and sought-after is expensive e-waste disposal. We have to charge the actual costs of the waste to the waste producers. Right now that waste cost is practically invisible to the consumer, much less the manufacturer. If the true waste costs (health impacts, polluted water supplies, diminishing limited resources) were factored into the decision to get a "new"…
How exactly would you compute it? And, refining phones for their metals content can be profitable.
Re: Why Phonebloks Will Never Happen
#89Your use of "never" is going to bite you in the ass, brother!
Re: Why Phonebloks Will Never Happen
#90> the stated motivation for this design is to reduce electrical waste. The best way to do that in the short term is to ensure devices are more repairable Right, a replaceable screen and battery and an SD card slot would get you 99% of the features you'd actually want from phonebloks, and it's actually something that would be achievable (if there were demand, which I think is the biggest problem here: there's just no…
A replaceable battery, SD card and easily replaceable screens were all features of phones available more than 5 years ago, yet these features disappeared because the iPhone showed that most consumers don't value those features over a sleek integrated lifestyle product. Besides all points mentioned already, I just can't think of a way to protect the pin-connection from wear in daily use without adding an additional sh…
Small, affordable, easy to repair. Pick two.
If you disagree about the "affordable" part, I invite you to estimate the cost of an iPhone that had replaceable parts, while maintaining the performance, battery life and size of the current, integrated one (if such a device is even technically doable).