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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.
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
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.
Good people go to bed earlier.
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..
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.
Your ad here. Ask me how!
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.
"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.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
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.
"95% of all Slashdot
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.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.