Modular Smartphones: What are they & what's their state in mid 2016.

Since the dawn of the smartphone age, modularity and phones never went in one sentence. But now, every tech publication is writing about how exciting the concept of modular smartphones is. Now here's the cool part. The concept of 'Modularity' isn't new to the world of computing. Desktop PC's have always been modular, giving you the ability to swap out almost everything in your PC without the need to buy a new one.
So, what exactly is the meaning of modular you ask? According to Google, modular means "employing or involving a module or modules as the basis of design or construction". That's pretty self explanatory. The basic idea behind modular tech is that the end user has the ability to swap out parts of their gadget with little to no effort. The advantages of a modular smartphone are amazing. Here's a video by Dave Hakkens, a Dutch designer who created the concept of Phonebloks, an open-source modular smartphone concept that kickstarted many many modular smartphone projects like Google's Project ARA. Check it out:

This concept caught the attention of smartphone manufacturers: LG, Lenovo Motorola & Fairphone, who's G5, Moto Z and Fairphone 2 respectively do employ the concept of semi-modularity. Fairphone 2 allows the user to swap out few things but keeps your choice of CPU, display and RAM fixed to those that come with the device. LG on the other hand allows users to remove a portion of the bottom of the phone and add modules that extend the capability of the phone, rather than being an inbuilt implementation. Lenovo Motorola's Moto Z has a flat magnetic back with pogo pins which allow the user to add modules that extend the phones capabilities like the LG G5. Perhaps the closest we will get to a fully modular phone in the near future will be Google Advance Technology and Project group's Project ARA (pictured above). But that is still in its developmental phase and isn't going to be available for the general public until sometime later next year.

The advantages of using a modular smartphone are a lot. Firstly and most importantly is hardware personalization. You get to 'build' a phone tailor made to your needs. If you're a road warrior who needs extreme levels of battery life endurance but doesn't care about the extra bells and whistles like a fancy camera or great speakers, you can opt for a killer high capacity battery and smaller less capable camera & speaker module. Or if you're really into smartphone photography, opt in for a very good camera module. The next is replacements. Say you broke the camera on your phone. If you were using a conventional non-modular phone, you would have to send it in for repairs, which would cost a lot or buy a new smartphone just because of the spoilt camera. A modular smartphones would allow you to simply swap the broken camera module in for a new one, without the need to replace your entire smartphone. But this isn't just limited to replacing broken parts. Say a new updated camera module is available which you want but you're satisfied with all the other parts in your phone, you can simply swap your camera module in for the updated one without buying a completely new smartphone. Not only does this allow the user to swap out old modules in for new ones, modular smartphones will also help reduce the e-waste generated because people won't be throwing away phones that often.

But like everything in the world of science and technology, modular smartphones have some disadvantages. Modular smartphones will be the cause for the decline in smartphone sales which will hurt the income of many smartphone manufacturers because every year when updated hardware is released, instead of buying a completely new phone, consumers will simply swap out the outdated hardware for a new one, effectively increasing the phones life. Also, many consumers don't care about the ability to swap out parts of their phone and just want to use a phone as it is. Adding modularity to that will just make their experience clunky and cumbersome.

So to wrap things up....

Modularity in smartphones is still in its early developmental stages and its recent consumer outings are more controversial than taking the world by storm. Yes, I am excited to see Google's ARA and similar products from others, but as of now, you'd be better off buying a conventional non modular smartphone and wait until something truly game changing is introduced into the market.



Are you excited for the future of modular smartphones? You must've seen Google Advance Technology and Project group's name mentioned in the article above. Just like their project ARA intends to revolutionise modular smartphones, another project of their called Project Tango, one more project of their's aiming to change the way we use augmented reality just hit the consumer market in Lenovo's Phab2 Pro. I'll be explaining what it is in the coming weeks, so stay tuned.