Modular Phones: What They Are and Why They Matter
The smartphone market is incredibly wide and diverse, with dozens of companies each having their own unique line of smartphones that cater to your general desires. Whether you’re a fan of Apple, LG, Samsung, or are still dedicated to BlackBerry like I am, there is probably a certain phone or two on the market that you aim to, or already have. But what if your phone could cater specifically to your lifestyle and desires, down to the basic components of the phone?
Modular phones are a concept that a small number of people have heard of. Beginning with the intention of practicality and reducing operating costs for the consumer, this new style of phone has shown the potential to work as a completely customizable phone that trims the fat that many smartphones currently have.
Modular phones are based on a three part design. The most basic part is the core which holds the processors, built in memory, and other basic hardware that makes the phone run. The next level up are the standard modules such as the frame, screen, and battery. These parts are the necessary, yet customizable parts of the phone. Finally there are the accessories which are things such as speakers, cameras, and antennas (Bluetooth, NFC, FM radio, etc).
Originally, the concept of a modular phone was to reduce e-waste, or electronic waste, that cellphones and smartphones had been creating, as well as allow the average consumer the ability to repair their own phone. Even better, you wouldn’t have to buy jewelers screwdrivers and disassemble the entire phone to do so. The process was as simple as changing a battery on an older smartphone or cellphone; simply take the broken part out and replace it with the new replacement. The main allure of this was the concept of fixing broken screens or old, worn out keyboards. Rather than have to take your chances with a heat gun or take it to a specialty repair store, you would be able to pop a broken screen off of the phone, which otherwise worked perfectly fine, and put a new one on.
This is the intention of the company Fairphone, with their phone the Fairphone 2. Fairphone’s business model is to sell ethically sourced phones (made in factories with fair labor conditions and without using “conflict resources”) that use environmentally conscious materials (recycled plastics and the such.) In order to cut down on electronic waste, or e-waste, the Fairphone 2’s modular allows for complete access to every functional part of the phone. This means that if the vibrating weight in your phone were to break because you’re so damn popular, you could take the back off and just switch it out in a matter of minutes. USB connector is getting worn out? Switch it. The phone holds the potential to last until the core, or main board, which holds the processor, core memory, and so on, burns out on you. It’s like having a car and being able to change every part on it by yourself.
Now you may have thought, “Hey, cars can get performance parts to be faster and more powerful. If it’s like a car, could a modular phone get performance parts?” You bet your ass they can.
While there were predecessors, like the now defunct Modu company, modular phones with customizable attachments, or modules, really came to light in 2016 with the introduction of Motorola’s Moto Z series. While LG’s G5 was marketed as modular, it could really only change the battery out. While the Moto Z series can’t change the main parts of the phone, Motorola took a step in the right direction by introducing accessories called “Moto Mods”, which partnered with some other companies in order to attempt to make a user customized phone. In addition to the extended battery/charging pack attachment were the three main, attention grabbing mods; the insta-share projector, the Hassleblad True Zoom, and the JBL SoundBoost speaker. These mods were optional attachments that a consumer could buy in order to allow their phone to either work as a projector, for everything from presentations to movies, a higher quality camera, or a mini speaker. These Mods allowed for the phone to become more oriented to the personality of the user, specializing in whatever the user valued most in a phone. Similarly, the professional camera manufacturer, RED, has announced a phone called the Hydrogen One, which has already been confirmed to have a really hardcore camera attachment that consumers can use if they please.
The biggest drawback of all of these, though, is the price tag that comes along with them. While the JBL speaker is a mild $80, which is the same price as a similarly powerful Bluetooth speaker, the projector and True Zoom mods come in at $300 each. While RED hasn’t announced a price tag for the camera attachment, the phone itself starts at $1200, moving up to $1600 for the more durable titanium model.
Finally comes the epitome of the modular phone I’ve been talking about. Beginning as a small startup project called “Phoneblox” which was eventually bought by Google, Project Ara was the kind of phone that would have changed the entire smartphone market as it stood. Sadly, as you may have guessed from the use of the past-tense, Project Ara has been cancelled. As per usual by Google though, it took the idea of the modular phone and made it into something magical. Rather than simply have a phone with attachments, Project Ara was exactly what I alluded to earlier with the three different levels of components. It was intended to be completely customizable, so you could have a super high definition screen, or you could have a battery saving, standard definition screen. Hell, you probably could have even had a smaller screen with a keyboard (hence the reason why I was so excited about it. Keyboards are my jam.) The magical part comes in with the accessories though. While there were basic things like fingerprint sensors and GPS units that could be included or left out to save power, or a range of cameras with different picture qualities, Project Ara anticipated some really, really user specific modules. With an open sourced development during its lifetime, Project Ara advertised the ability to have things such as blood glucose monitors, in case the user had diabetes, or radiation sensors, in case you needed that for whatever ridiculous reason. If you had an idea, you could make it into a module for Project Ara.
The biggest problem for modular smartphones is that with customizability comes a higher potential for manufacturers to lose money. Producing in bulk is how money is made, and producing modules for phones that may only be for a relatively small group of people would cost a lot of money. Fairphone hasn’t released upgraded parts for their phones due to the cost and risk of producing said parts, and with the super in depth customizability of Project Ara, this cost and risk would only increase. As sad as it is, individually customizable modular phones seem to be moving along the same path as phones with keyboards. The audience for them is so small that it isn’t profitable to produce them, and without production the market will continue to stay how it is. Maybe one day in the future we will see fully modular phones, but until then we just have to make do.
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