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Google's Modular Phone: Clever Concept or an Awkward Crossover Between Product and Interaction Design?
Share your thoughts for Core77's Discussion Topic of the Week
This week we bring you our pressing topic of the moment straight from our reader-driven discussion boards! We recently caught wind of Google's plan to deliver their Ara modular phone concept to consumers in 2017, a cellphone with a magnetic modular backboard for different gadgets like speakers, camera lenses, storage space, etc. (You may remember the origin of this idea from Dave Hakkens' viral Phonebloks concept video.)
Enter a caption (optional)
Enter a caption (optional)Needless to say, designers are toggling with quality of such a solution by Google. Core77 discussion board member Cyberdemon says:
"I'll chime in that my predictions 2 years ago remained correct - they went away from the 'Everything modular' approach to a 'smart phone with a bunch of USB connectors for accessories'.
It's more logical than trying to interconnect the deeply complex inner workings, but makes it easier to enable things like a modular camera, sensors, or batteries like they've chosen to do.
It's still an interesting project, but people have already created smartphone platforms in less 'modular' ways (see iPhone credit card readers, barcode scanners, snap on DSLR lenses, etc) so now it's really more about the packaging than the technology."
Core77-er mo-i also brings up a few interesting points about the lasting potential for such an interchangeable object with many small parts—"These concepts show the limitations of physical product design in a hurting way...I mean, interesting idea. I like it, but I doubt there is a mass market for it. Isn't ruggedness one of the sales factors in phones for the last years? How do you get those connections water tight and lasting?"
So what do you think—is this a clever step forward or a sloppy solution to marrying the benefits between interactive design and physical design elements? How could Google rethink this to make it more sustainable?
Share your thoughts and design insights in the comment feed below!
(Also feel free to check out the original post and contribute on our discussion board!)
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My background's in biology and computers, not ID, but I've been around long enough that I still have a slide rule (and remember how to use it). I also have two personal calculators; the second one is solar powered!
Having said that, I know some of the progress and current status of the Project Ara and what's been developed so far, and I think the concept at least is brilliant for several reasons.
1) I currently have a Samsung Galaxy S6. It's a nice phone, and one of the reasons I got it was that my previous phone was never going to be upgraded to Android Lollipop and with Android 5.1.1 Google made raw (.dng) files available for photographers. It cost us $1400 for two new phones largely for this simple reason. We sent our old phones out to the people at Rainforest Connection, but how many millions of phones are trashed EVERY DAY because they're old? Old in this day and age no longer means decades.
2) If the battery on my phone dies, so does the phone. It can't be repaired because the body is literally sealed together and can't be dismantled without irrevocable damage. The same goes for any internal components. When it's done, it's garbage. I remember the days when people thought Apple memory chips were too expensive, so they'd order a new laptop with minimal memory then go to somewhere like OWC and buy upgrade chips. In response, Apple started soldering the memory chips to the motherboard. My desktop computer can be completely disassembled, to the point of removing the motherboard from the case. My laptop, not so much. Tablets and phones? Even less.
3) In the camera world, if you go back a couple of decades, one of the great features of Hasselblad cameras was that (almost) any piece - back, viewfinder, lens, etc. from any Hasselblad camera would fit any other Hasselblad camera. That all went away when they developed the H1. In today's world, if you own Camera A from a given manufacturer and upgrade to Camera B, it's almost a given that nothing (except the lens and maybe the memory card) from Camera A will fit Camera B. This means a different battery, different battery charger, different grip, and so on. You could PROBABLY use the same shoulder strap.
Now, look at the alternative. You want to upgrade your display? No problem. Disconnect the display module and replace it. Battery dies? No problem. Disconnect and replace the battery. Want to upgrade the camera because a company like Huawei has developed a camera module with 2 lenses and two sensors? No problem. Buy a new camera module and recycle the old one. Don't need the camera but want extra storage space, more battery power or a stereo microphone? No problem. Even if you want to upgrade the processor (which, as I understand it is married to the backbone), you can disconnect your existing modules, get a new backbone, and give the old one to someone who already has existing modules, or keep it as a backup.
That's the obvious stuff, but there's more. We call them smart 'phones', but that's a legacy term. It's not a phone, even though it has a phone module. It's a computer and a radio transceiver. So, let's say you're a doctor working on blood-borne diseases like malaria in Africa. You take your phone and plug in the module that allows you to do blood testing. An engineer looking into water quality issues in the latest evacuation zone? No problem. Plug in the module that allows you to do this. We already have this to some extent - everything from companies like Square for e-commerce to infrared cameras for building inspectors and contractors, but these are all add-ons, connecting to ports. What if they could be integrated into the phone itself?
I can see this idea making companies like Apple, HTC, Motorola, Samsung and others nervous; I don't know what the markup is on a $700 phone, but I imagine it's significant, and having planned obsolescence is a part of keeping people motivated to buy new, buy more.
Apple has developed a robot that can very quickly and safely deconstruct an iPhone for recycling. That's great, but what if it didn't have to be recycled in that sense? We know we're living in a changing environment, where our choices are having global effects. I don't remember the name of the person who first coined the term, but he defined business profit, environmental benefit and social sustainability as a three-legged stool. The point, he said, is not that if you remove one of the legs the stool falls over. The point is that it doesn't matter WHICH ONE of the legs you remove; it still falls over.
The technology inside the first iPhone started out as a display the size of a dining table. I remember when a pocket calculator that could add, subtract, multiply and divide was $100. It wasn't that long ago. Is Project ARA THE definitive answer? Probably not, but it's a start.
Mike.
What you are describing already exists, and I think if done properly could be the way forward, even morethatn the poject ARA. I don't know why but the Fairphone (I can't paste a link, a quick Google search will do) has hardly been talked about, and it does exactly what you mentioned, they aim to be completely sustainable trying to reduce programmed obsolesce to even being fully transparent on the whole manufacturing process. Might be worth talking a look
Nice analysis Mike. Scott, I share your opinion that modular pieces are a good idea. But since the project is long gone it showed that even Google is not up to the task. IMO adding modular parts to existing smartphones is a great area that needs further development.
The whole product is going to be very costly to sustain. It will need to use a different kind of biz model to sustain this line. And probably find a special customer segment for it.
Modular pieces is a great idea. What this does is, it opens up the market to more people to build their ideas. Currently, phones are stuck in one dimension, the screen. This is really limits creativity and cuts off accessibility for people with great ideas that aren't married to being used via screen and the hardware that's in the phone. I don't think this phone is just about up-gradable modules, that part is a very small part to what makes this phone great. We should be thinking about how this changes and adds to how people interact with the device.