Phonebloks, if you haven’t already heard of it, is a concept technology based on LEGO design principles. Basically, it’s a phone that is completely modular so you can replace various components as they become obsolete or brake break, effectively nullifying the need to ever buy a new phone. Sounds like a great idea, right?
Watch the Engineering Newswire segment about Phonebloks here.
It’s one of those concepts that forces you to smack yourself in the head for not thinking of it first – like the first person to eat with a fork and a spoon simultaneously. The concept almost seems intuitive, since most of us are on a 20 month (or less) transition from one phone to the next. But, the design may have some inherent problems.
John Brownlee at Co.Design points out, “Within your smartphone, data whizzes between components at speeds that are nearly impossible to imagine. Every milimeter’s distance between these components comes with a speed penalty attached, which is why smartphones tend to put as many components as possible on a single chip.”
My first inclination, as a precursor to a digital high-five, was to say, “Right on, man. What crazy designer would do that to their poor engineering team?”
Obviously, there are a lot of potential issues with making a modular phone: proprietary components, module communication, a universal language for communication between elements as well as Brownlee’s technical issues, ie. sacrificing speed or processing power for modularity. It would be like saying you could use any CAD software with any tooling outfit on any operating system, as long as you use dial-up connections for everything.
This has disaster written all over it from an engineering and functionality perspective. Maybe.
From an ROI perspective, striving to make this concept a reality may be completely ridiculous, but there could be some real value in working toward this end. Though the initial idea, and even many of the potential subsequent prototypes, have the potential to be expensive chimaeras, innovations within the design could drive the development of better mobile technology and faster systems. Engineering is a division of the sciences after all, applied science to be exact.
This also falls into the dilemma of “the next big thing.” For instance, 3D televisions flopped when they hit the market, and those same companies are now pushing another, “more high-definition” or ultravision hardware format down our throats, to little or no avail. We’ve exhausted the need for higher definition, so the advancement of commercial television technology is slowing down. Similarly, phones have started adding features that seem ever-more exotic and somewhat frivolous; like making phones bendable and superfluous fingerprint locks.
The need for a new big thing falls on this modular concept. There is a lot of potential, and maybe the concept’s creator was wrong when he told Co.Design, “Making Phonebloks a reality is probably impossible with current technologies.” The struggle is in finding somebody willing to take on the challenge (and cost) of developing a product that may not be worth the effort in the end. Ralph Waldo Emerson may have been right when he said, “Life is a journey, not a destination,” but can we apply that to product development?
Though the concept may be a conceited effort by the society-at-large to be different like everybody else, the realization of the idea could precipitate innovative advances, and maybe even solve some other peripheral issues.
Aside from a paycheck, would you rather strive toward something truly innovative that may never come to fruition or develop something you know will definitely become a feasible product? Why? Also, would you buy a modular phone? Email chris.fox@advantagemedia.com or post a comment below.
