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Google's Project Ara Could Bring PC-Like Hardware Ecosystem To Phones
An anonymous reader writes "Now that Google's modular phone effort, Project Ara, looks a bit less like vaporware, people are starting to figure out its implications for the future of cellphones. One fascinating possibility is that it could transform the cellphone purchasing process into something resembling desktop computer purchasing. Enthusiasts could search out the individual parts they like the best and assemble them into cellphone Voltron. People who just want a decent phone with no hassle could look at pre-built offerings — and not just from Apple, Samsung, and the like. It could open up a whole new group of phone 'manufacturers.' Of course, this comes with drawbacks, too — if you think fragmentation is bad now, imagine trying to support thousands of different hardware combinations."
It'll be way too expensive to have a build your own phone. And it's not what the majority of consumers want. Apple has proven this time and time again. An unserviceable phone, an unserviceable tablet, and now unserviceable laptops. None of which have the simplest of battery swaps available (hell even the ram is soldered on board now in the MBPs). They've built the largest computer (mostly mobile) empire on hardware that is idiot proof and has no options. This is what consumers want. A build your own phone would be fun, but just not practical and way too expensive.
I'll get slammed, I know. Fanbois unite and all that. Oddly enough I'm typing this on a 5yr old MBP that I will lament when it finally goes. I don't like ios and most likely will never upgrade since I do not like their new models. I know this one has been through a lot with me and performed flawlessly. I've done some hardware hacks and it's been fun.
Except for a very few hardcore HW geeks (like me), "modular" PCs are simply not useful. Once a IT department has standardized, they don't change until the vendor stops making the base model, and the PCs are nearly always locked down to simplify support (never mind the stupidity/insanity/bullying by Microsoft that makes many upgrades have to re-authenticate). There's a small market, gamers mostly, that cycle through video cards, and more rarely, HDs/SSDs, but that's about it.
For example, the refurbished desktop (Dell T5400) I'm using for this posting has only the motherboard and CPU left from the minimum-corporate original configuration, but that cost less than a Xeon X5570 and compatible motherboard would have cost me when I bought it, and I've filled every slot, but one.
More likely, end users will rarely change a component, and phone vendors may find modularity useful for prototyping, but they won't bear the cost of the connectors.
It falls into a dozen parts that I can't recover in the dark. Made harder by the fact that the LED light bounced somewhere and is now under someone's foot.
Right now, I just have 3 parts: phone, battery and back cover to worry about.
Slashdot's rate-of-post filter: Preventing you from posting too many great ideas at once.
This is a lousy idea for a smartphone, but it has potential as an industrial automation and robotics controller. Those are built up from lots of little modules, but the mechanical and electrical standards are decades old, and systems are too bulky. Think of this as a replacement for Arduino "shields", too.
Actually its the right application.
./er's aren't old enough to remember when computers were monolithic pieces of silicon like phones are today, a single assembly with everything soldered in and not replaceable. If something broke, fixing it was expensive, If you needed anything bespoke it cost an absolute fortune. Now everyone and their dog (well, except Apple) offers many options for any run of the mill laptop, ordering a custom machine from Dell is easy, every corner computer shop can offer you a bespoke desktop at competitive prices because components fit together on standardised connectors like DIMM, PCI-e, SATA and USB.
Just not in the way most people are thinking.
Modular design leads to modular construction. Modular construction leads to lower prices via economies of scale. Many
As will it be with phones, Samsung, LG, et al. will simply assemble them out of component parts that simply slot together. Designing new phones will become simpler and easier. Having to produce custom radio's will be as simple as swapping a module. This is where the average person will benefit from lower prices.
Beyond that, there will still be people who upgrade. Computer component stores have not disappeared because Acer and Toshiba sell laptops that dont need extra bits. People still upgrade their hard drives, video cards or even buy entire bespoke machines. The same it will eventually be with phones, need more storage, get a storage module. New radio technology, get the new radio module. Want a mini HDMI port... you get the idea. Not everyone will upgrade their phones... in fact the majority wont, but there will be enough people who will to justify these modules selling to the general public.
Phone repairs, goes without saying this is definitely the way to go.
Modular phone designs will happen, not overnight, maybe not even in the next few years but it will eventually happen.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
I have a cellphone. It is an Applie iPhone 3GS I got two years ago as a free upgrade from my flip phone.It works fine. My wife and daughter have Samsung Galaxy 3. They work. We can call each other and text each other, and if we have time, wecan play games on them and occasionally listen to music. Will this new device help that? Not really, not for FREE, which is what we paid for our phones. Ara is a solution to a problem we don't (and no one I know) has.
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
From TFS: "Now that Google's modular phone effort, Project Ara, looks a bit less like vaporware"
Wait... what hallucinogenics is "anymous reader" overdosing on to come to the conclusion that Project Ara "looks a bit less like vaporware"? It's nothing but a bunch of sketches, pretty graphics, cheap models, and vague design concepts. It's practically the very effin' definition of vaporware.
It's not going to be LIKE the PC ecosystem; it IS the PC ecosystem, just with new players. 10 years from now your Replicators, laptops & server clusters are all going to be sporting Ara-derived chassis. You heard it here first, kids. Why deal with Intel & IBM's bullshit when you have a architecture-agnostic interface ready to go? A computer is the result of an accumulation of standards & as someone that's taken a decades-long generalistic approach to the industry, this IS the new standard. Maybe not in its initial public incarnation, but 2.0'll hit it of just like Android 2.0 took over mobile software.
WTF? Where is the geek spirit in this /. crowd? When a manufacturer releases a phone with battery soldered, everyone's complaining. When a laptop manufacturer releases a laptop that you can't upgrade, complaining again. Now that people are putting effort to allow you to custom your mobile device till your heart bleeds, you are complaining again.
I had enough of phones that I have to throw away because of one very small, and not even the most important, component went bad, and I can't do anything. And it's not worth repairing coz the repair cost is almost as high, or even higher, than buying a new phone. What a fucking waste of resources.
Give me this modular design anyday. I've been waiting for someone to do this for laptop and mobile phone for a decade. Can't come soon enough.
Just release the design, release the interface, make it so open that anyone on the planet can manufacture components without huge license cost, and let the market decide. I'm sure there will a lot of entrepreneurial folks who will set up shop to assemble this into a nice package for your customization. Just like the PC era. Bring it on. There will be a lot of new applications. Talk about wearables? Wait till you have all these components that you can assemble the way you like it.
From 2006: "With laptops becoming more modular, and the use of mini PCI or PCI express cards for most of the components, are we going to start to see more third party upgrade options for laptops ? [...] Are we going to soon be able to easily upgrade the processors in the laptops as well?"
Don't get me wrong, I'd love to be able to plug a logic analyzer or ham radio module into my smartphone, but I can't see why the mass market would tolerate the extra cost, weight and failure modes of a modular phone.