Motorola's Modular Smartphone Dream Is Too Young To Die (fastcompany.com)

harrymcc writes: Lots of people have fantasized about modular smartphones, but Motorola introduced one -- the Moto Z -- and actually created an ecosystem of useful add-ons. Now its parent company, Lenovo, has made major cuts at Moto headquarters in Chicago, throwing the future of Moto Mods into doubt. Over at Fast Company, Jared Newman talked to some of the people who have invested energy in this modular platform about why it would be such a shame if Lenovo gave up on the idea.

Comments

not this again

[hjf]

seriously, who wants this?
I certainly don't.
i like a solid, compact phone. No "module" bullshit. No one is going to "change the camera for a better one" or "have a high quality audio amplifier". Or even "remove the camera and give me a larger battery.

Batteries already take a lot of space in a phone. you don't get any significant improvement by adding a tiny battery module.

Also, moto-z style modules... who wants a 1" thick phone again?

Re:not this again

[Anonymous Coward]

i do. God forbid anyone wants anything you dont. The world doesnt revolve around you. I dont need a high quality camera so id probably swap it out for the projector module, or maybe the battery pack. And I'd rather take a 1" phone over a phone that dies after 24 hours any day

Re:not this again

[thesupraman]

This is far FAR from a modular phone, it is a connector/attachment mechanism on the back of a pretty normal phone.

the same could be done with a secondary usb c connector on the back easily enough, or the existing connector with a little work.
but why. as you say, most 'mods' are really features the phone should be able to have anyway (alexa? really?), or things that should be external devices because you dont want to carry them all the time.

it is however a pity that wireless usb seems to be dead, as that would be somewhat useful..

Re:not this again

[Anonymous Coward]

What the world really needs is a RAZR with a high-res screen, larger battery (paper-thin and weight aren't huge issues, match size + weight of a touch screen phone!) and an open-source OS with binaries compiled to native machine-code via open-source compilers like GCC.

If anything is modular, it should be the encrypted binary driver system. This can be handled on a fully protected sub-CPU with protected memory completely inaccessible to any other part of the system. Communication between system memory and protected memory would be used to transmit data as needed. Such a system could isolated processes in a similar manner and exploit multiple partially isolated cores.

Why doesn't this exist? Honestly people do not want phones. People want a portable PC (PDA) with a touch-screen interface so they can stare at online content and watch video all day.

A phone is not a PDA, it's a communications device. A feature-phone is an expanded general purpose communications device.

A smart-phone is an upgraded PDA.

Re:not this again

[Actually, I do RTFA]

I'm fine with a 1" thick phone. Or laptop. I don't get the fetish with thinness. 1" is probably the maximum to slip in my pocket, but for me thickness is just a boolean "fits in my pocket" check.

I thought a projector would be fun, but I'm not buying the moto z. My guess is that the modules will not be well supported in a year if you want to keep the OS up to date.

Re:not this again

[Type44Q]

I'd rather have a good, truly modular phone that's an inch thick than the impossible-to-repair shit you're pushing.

Modular accessories aren't me, per se, but they're still cool, too.

Re:not this again

[Khyber]

"Also, moto-z style modules... who wants a 1" thick phone again?"

As I hold my nearly-indestructible 3/4" thick DuraForce Pro, which withstands my mining excursions and underwater photography - I sure as fuck do, because my phone could be used to beat you to death, beat your phone to death, and then I could call funeral services for you and your phone on my nearly-unscathed phone. It's an unstoppable fucking tank. Make those modular connections tough enough, I'd love to toss out the never-used Bluetooth module and put in a tiny high-quality headphone amp with a small power-boosting battery unit and waterproof headphone connector inside. Upgrade camera? Maybe not, my camera's pretty dope as it is. This thing is meant for taking underwater photos.

"Batteries already take a lot of space in a phone. you don't get any significant improvement by adding a tiny battery module."

Battery tech has advanced a bit more than you think. 1" x .75" x .25" nets you almost 1.5Wh of power (3.7V@450mAh,) a good 10-15% compared to typical current smartphone capacities. Something that would replace the camera module in my phone would give me about 30% more battery life, and since this thing tends to sip power as I don't do billions of things on it, that's giving me about four days between charges instead of three.

Meanwhile your shit is tethered to the wall every 12 hours.

Re:not this again

[Khyber]

"it is however a pity that wireless usb seems to be dead"

Why would you need that when phones have USBOTG built in now days? You've got a higher-bandwidth connector that supports almost any device that follows the protocols, including possible eGPU/eASIC (for the fools that want to crypto on their phone.)

Re:not this again

[schnell]

i do. God forbid anyone wants anything you don't.

That's the thing. If this device is being considered for retirement, it's precisely because not enough people want it.

If what the Slashdot crowd wanted represented actual consumer tastes in any volume, then every PC would be running Linux - WITH OH GOD NO SYSTEMD - and be 100% upgradeable/replaceable. It's not, and it doesn't. Most other people don't want what a theoretical Slashdot "you" wants, and that's how the market works.

I work for a giant large evil US cellular carrier, and I can tell you it's the same for smartphones. The smartphone business is about three things: 1.) volume; 2.) volume; 3.) volume. That's why Apple and Samsung have some crazy percentage of the total profits in the market. Do you want something different? For example, a MILSPEC rugged phone? You want an intrinsically safe smartphone? You want a smartphone that supports HAM radio?

You can get it, just be prepared to pay for it. You can get almost anything you want in a smart phone, but you have to vote with your wallet, not just on Interwebs comment boards. Because you are going to pay out the wazoo for what you want because it isn't the same as what tens of millions of other users want.

Slashdot-y people said they wanted a phone that could dock and be an Android device. Motorola built one, and nobody bought it. Slashdot-y people said they wanted a super duper secure phone and nobody is buying it. I worked years ago on the "Obama Blackberry" that numerous US government agencies insisted that they needed and... wait for it... not even they bought it when they figured out how much it cost ($3500 vs. a not as secure but more functional $200 BlackBerry).

There are lots and lots of smartphones out there that meet different needs. Unless your needs happen to match with that of tens of millions of other users, please be prepared that your wallet will take a hit when you vote for it. Otherwise... if you want a smartphone from a big carrier store that you can get for next to nothing upfront, be prepared to get the exact same kind of phone that meets the needs of tens of millions of users who don't include you.

Re:not this again

[Joce640k]

I do

Sure, but are you prepared to pay $5000 for one?

(which is probably what it would cost if it were brought to market)

I thought not.

Re:not this again

[Joce640k]

Damn straight. I've got an old LG with 3.5" screen here and every time I see it I think this would be perfect if they only updated it to a retina screen, etc.

Who wants to lug around a 6" beast all the time? (apart from people who want other people to see them using it).

Re: not this again

[An Ominous Cow Erred]

Replying to this to boost thread rating:

Yeah the keyboard mod looks great, and it's on the cusp of getting released. It may have been slowed down thanks to these layoffs though. =( I pray that it gets released and is available to as many people as possible since it may make the Moto Z2 the last useful landscape QWERTY phone for a long time. >.;

Re:not this again

[Daralantan]

who wants a 1" thick phone again?

If the entire added thickness was battery alone.... I ALMOST think I would.

Re: not this again

[reanjr]

How is a modular keyboard better than a bluetooth one: https://www.adafruit.com/produ...

Re: not this again

[Bright Apollo]

Because it's attached, doesn't require pairing, and can supply extra battery power.

Re:not this again

[jellomizer]

Here is the thing. To make and sell such devices there is a lot of money needed upfront. If you are going to invest millions in such devices, we need more people then a few people to sell it too. Especially because after a few years the phone will be out of date and will need a reinvestment to build a new batch. However your example isn't as much about wanting a modular phone, but just a phone with a bigger battery and perhaps a projector.
Which they are devices you can get that support many Android and iPhone models that just do that. it isn't modular per say, but they are cases that add extra batteries to your device, by plugging into the usb/lightning ports. You can also get portable projectors that plug into these ports as well.

They may not clip in as nice as the Motorola, but the point is most people don't want a modular phone, they want one phone to do what they want it to do. For the most part with the competition you can normally find a phone that meets your criteria as well as you can find.

I commend Motorola for not just making an other blatant iPhone ripoff and try to give us something new. However what they offered, wasn't what most people wanted.

Re:not this again

[Luckyo]

Wires.

Re:not this again

[stabiesoft]

I did, and believe me I paid far far far far... less than others paid for a samsung or apple. Between 1/2 and 1/3. I bought mine because it was a fantastic price for the phone. I was skeptical about the modules, but it came with a free projector and I ended up buying a battery. And it all just works. The battery gives me days of use and I actually like the phone being heavier. If I do want to go lighter I just pop the battery off. I think where they messed up is the optional camera module is not that great. Otherwise, I might have picked up one. Oh, and the phone has that all too uncommon feature of an SD expansion slot.

Re:not this again

[Rob Y.]

You're basically right. This amounts to a very elegant way to have a swappable battery for your phone - and not much more. If the price were right, that might be a great feature. In fact, if they were to bundle a single battery mod with their phones and emphasize that you can get a spare for a few bucks, they might have done well.

The rest of the mods are niche items. And the elegant implementation is part of the problem. Who's going to pay a serious amount of money for a modular speaker or camera or projector that depends on newer generations of the phone maintaining exactly the same physical size and shape? Either Motorola's going to limit themselves in order to keep old mods relevant - or nobody's going to buy the mods. It's not planned obsolescence exactly - but it's also not a formula for massive adoption. But with cheap battery mods for a specific model, they could've been on to something.

Re:not this again

[Khyber]

You certainly don't own any USBOTG devices. Cords aren't necessary. Just like a jump drive.

Re:not this again

[Luckyo]

We must be talking about different things then. USB-OTG is just a protocol that enables a USB device to act as both master and slave on the same USB port.

Wires are obviously still required for connection.

Re:not this again

[Khyber]

I'm not seeing any wires (eg a dangling cord) on any of my flash drives or phone-mountable cameras. Just the connector. Care to try again? Did you mean pins or traces?

Re:not this again

[Luckyo]

Ah, slashdot. Explain your view in more detail, offering an olive branch to the other person to explain others, so mutual understanding can be found.

Get a "fuck you, try again" as a response.

Well done.

Re:not this again

[Khyber]

Ah, Slashdot, where people trying to extend an olive branch do so while obviously still failing at following the conversation and key point statements like "Cords aren't necessary. Just like a jump drive." thus nullifying their own post by failing to realize they did not read and fully comprehend.

but it most certainly should.

[nimbius]

some of these mods are obtrusive enough to earn the owner a black eye. for example:
The JBL SoundBoost Speaker ($80): Everyone on planet earth unilaterally detests the one person on the bus, in the store, or god help us in the library or gym listening to music at full-tilt on their phone speaker. The ability to make this even more annoying is clearly not a feature.
Moto's Insta-Share Projector ($300): spend $700 on a phone, then spend $300 on a projector, then casually remind yourself the internet is a ubiquitous decentralized platform from which anyone can access the content you're attempting to "present." Road warriors will stick to the presentation system at the clients office, while assholes will use this feature to exclusively bring the drive in movie experience to your next cattle-class flight. enjoy your attempt at sleeping through Frozen while a 9 year old turns the device into a disco ball.
the Offgrid Power Pack ($60): its...a fucking battery. these are cheaper by the dozen at newegg and amazon...enjoy watching this thing collect dust on vendor shelves.

The mods sucked

[AvitarX]

Anemic extra battery
Projector (kinda cool, but a niche)
Speaker (very niche area between a phone speaker and a bigger Bluetooth one)
Camera (great in concept, but it sucked).

I bet if the camera was good, things would have been different (I was going to buy one until I read the camera review, and I know of one other person that felt the same, considering how few Moto Z's I've seen, 2 people seems relevant).

Re:Jeez Louise, give it up already :{

[chromaexcursion]

LOL! dead on!

Let me change out the radio

[rsilvergun]

and we'll talk. Also the processor and screen. Until then it's pretty useless.

Re:What's I'd rather have

[Khyber]

"Is a stable android 5.2" system, with qi wireless charging, some basic gorilla glass, enough performance not to lag normal apps, a speaker that is loud enough, and the usual GPS."

Ah, but you also said $200. Was gonna say drop $350 on a Kyocera Duraforce Pro, keep waterproofing AND headphone and charging/USB jack, plus both wireless charging standards, get an SD card slot, has GPS, compass, etc. Toss a simple screen protector on it (though the Verizon version has sapphire glass) and this thing is unstoppable. It even tells you if moisture is present near/in any of the jacks so you can dry it out before plugging anything in. This thing is unkilable, at least as far as I'm concerned. I've broken almost every other phone I've had excepting the old Nokia brick and a Kyocera Phantom.

Wrong!

[Master5000]

The market didn't ask for this. It just sounds like some engineer's wet dream that was allowed to come true because the guys in marketing were sleeping at the wheel. There is a reason there is a marketing department and engineers aren't allowed in it. Engineers' desires != Most people's desires. Lenovo is just doing what Motorola should have been doing in the first place. Can the project and tell the engineer to build another fart app that will generate billions of dollars.

There is little market for this

[DrXym]

A modular phone is a niche. It's not something that people generally want because it results in bulky, more complex, more expensive devices.

Now, if Motorola produced a repairable or upgradable phone than that might be another matter entirely. Just a phone that is easily serviceable without special skill - replaceable covers, batteries, screen, main module, antenna, camera. I expect there is a market for that kind of phone especially for businesses. Since Motorola was sold to Lenovo, the nearest analogue would be Thinkpads.

Re:There is little market for this

[Anonymous Coward]

Motoz is NOT a modular phone. It is a phone with accessories capability.

A modular phone would let you swap out the Antenna, CPU, Screen, receivers, memory etc, no one gives a crap about the accessories that would work just as well via Bluetooth.

Re:There is little market for this

[sjbe]

A modular phone is a niche. It's not something that people generally want because it results in bulky, more complex, more expensive devices.

Quite so.

Now, if Motorola produced a repairable or upgradable phone than that might be another matter entirely.

Your previous argument still holds and for the same reasons. Few people would buy it. Making a phone like that would make it cost more. Repairable? Cheaper to just get a new phone and/or offer insurance. Upgradeable? Not even sure how this would be possible given how tightly packaged the electronics are in smartphones. Again, cheaper to buy new than to design in features that very few people will ever actually utilize. You could do something with a battery case that has features but the handset makers have zero incentive to design a repairable/upgradable phone.

Just a phone that is easily serviceable without special skill - replaceable covers, batteries, screen, main module, antenna, camera.

And you end up with something the size of a brick, that isn't water sealed, that costs a lot more and probably works worse. I think it would sell very poorly.

Re: There is little market for this

[DrXym]

It doesn't make the phone the size of a brick. It just means a removable back and things held in place with screws instead of glue, and a logical tear down to reach parts.

Re: There is little market for this

[sjbe]

It doesn't make the phone the size of a brick. It just means a removable back and things held in place with screws instead of glue, and a logical tear down to reach parts.

I'm exaggerating for effect obviously but it isn't really a debate that it would substantially increase the size of the device and almost certainly the cost as well. There are a lot of other technical issues as well. For example do you know how hard it is to make a device that is both waterproof and user serviceable? It's damn near impossible even with experienced technicians doing the servicing.

I personally could live with it being a bit larger but the economics of trying to sell the device seem unlikely to work. It worked for desktop PCs because they had the space budget to be designed to be modular. You'll notice that laptops for the most part are not user serviceable or modular and they have a bigger space budget than phones do. For better or worse very few people actually care about it being user serviceable and designs that make service easy almost invariably cost more. I'm not convinced very many people would be willing to pay a substantial premium for serviceability even if we ignore all the other engineering trade offs that would be inevitably required. Cheaper and simpler to just replace the device and pay for some insurance.

Please understand that I'm not trying to apologize for Apple and others designing a phone that is intentionally hard to service. I'm right with you on disliking that. But I understand why they do it and it really comes down to a cost benefit analysis on their end. I don't like it but I think I get it.

Just offer better battery cases with features

[sjbe]

i like a solid, compact phone. No "module" bullshit. No one is going to "change the camera for a better one" or "have a high quality audio amplifier". Or even "remove the camera and give me a larger battery.

It seems like they are over complicating the problem. Instead of some weird design with all sorts of modules, just offer a basic phone and then what amounts to a battery/expansion case. Want a headphone jack and SD card slot plus a bigger battery? Buy a case with those bits of hardware. Offer cases with various configurations and aesthetic designs to allow people to configure their phone to their particular needs. Then the handset maker can keep offering the paper thin phones for those who want that but people who want more can get that too. Pretty much any feature can be put into the case so why isn't this a thing?

Naturally I didn't read TFA but...

[wytten]

I thought it was doomed from the start. Years ago I got burned on the PALM IPO because at the time I thought pluggable hardware was going to make their PDA's king of the world. The consumer market ultimately didn't respond then, or now.

Battery!

[heson]

Give me a modular battery on any decent smart phone and I'll be happy. The rest of the addons are better suited being generic to any phone. Speakers, better separate from phone. Projector, better separated from phone. The only thing I want to change on my smart phone is the battery when it gets old.