I was looking over an interesting concept for a new phone "platform" today - Phonebloks. The general idea is that the "phone" portion of the device is really just a glorified breadboard that one attaches components, or Bloks, to. These bloks comprise all functionality of the phone, including things as big as the screen and as small as the wifi unit.
You can see their social media push at https://www.thunderclap.it/projects/2931-phonebloks.
Now, I would love to see this realized as much as anyone. That said, it seems like the kind of problem that would require billions and decades to get right, given the complexities that would arise in every single aspect of the thing. Just getting it to boot would be a feat, and making it comfortable, durable, and attractive would be an uphill battle. Even if all that is managed, the nature of the thing would probably make the device several times larger than its expendable equivalents.
So, I ask you engineers - is it possible? What do you see as the biggest challenges of such a device?
Replies
Well I guess it's feasible but doesn't really make sense to me. It's like stepping back to the days of the desktop PC when it was easy and cool to upgrade your video card or add a new optical drive or whatever. But now that electronics are so cheap and society has so much disposable income, less people are interested in having stuff that lasts - they just want the latest iPhone because it's "cool" and having a Frankenphone made of blocks wouldn't be as cool after the first month. Well maybe I'm wrong but I see this as a very niche thing that real nerds might be interested in but the general public would completely avoid. ?