Haven’t we all at some point wished we could upgrade just the camera of a year old phone to the latest lots-of-more-megapixels camera? Or having Nokia’s 41mp camera on an Android phone? Presently, we would throw the phone away which will be given to our unfortunate younger sibling(or some such!) provided we can afford to buy a new phone generating lots of e-waste in the process. Dave Hakkens had this idea to solve this problem — Phoneblocks – basically a modular phone where individual parts are plugged into a common chassis.
Prototype of the modular phone
He made this video explaining the concept of a modular phone that essentially is a proposal to make open source hardware.The idea is for companies to work together to make a universal chassis that can connect components as required so I can have Apple’s 64bit processor with Samsung’s HD screen and Nokia’s battery. Dave threw the idea onto the net and the video went viral generating lots of buzz and got noticed by Motorola (and Google) who were already working on something similar – Project Ara.
WE WANT TO DO FOR HARDWARE WHAT THE ANDROID PLATFORM HAS DONE FOR SOFTWARE.
Project Ara is Motorola’s idea to make a open source hardware platform. Motorola approached Dave and asked for his help in developing a platform where everyone is free to give input in its making. In collaboration with dScount, they give missions to everyone who has registered to help making this a reality with the promise that the top 100 contributes get a free unit when its released. You can join and contribute too.
Eco-Mobius is a modular phone from ZTE Corporation. It has 4 kinds of modules that can be slid onto the chassis namely, display, core, battery, and camera. It won the 2013 Red Dot award for design concept.
Eco-Mobius
The latest news on the project is that Motorola has signed on leading 3D printer designer company – 3D Systems to see if the parts can be 3D printed. The success of this project essentially rides on this. While experts all over the web are skeptical over the success of this project, would you buy a modular phone?
