What Are Modular Phones?
Do It Yourself Telephony
For over a year now, an idea has been spreading around the Internet and into the technology industry: “What if you didn’t have to get a new phone when the old one broke?” It seems like wishful thinking, but the biggest names in tech are actually working on, and close to releasing, phones that allow just that.
They’re called Modular Phones and they give the user the ability to replace or repair their device if something goes wrong.
Let’s say I dropped my phone and the camera manages to get scratched, instead of having to face either the possibility of paying a fortune for a repair or getting a new phone (the only two options that exist today), I can just order a camera module and be done with it. Or here’s another example, the newest iPhone has been released and I’m the poor schmuck that’s stuck with last year’s model. Well, no longer will we have to buy a new phone just to get new features. Modular phones give users the option to upgrade certain features of the phone without the need to replace the entire thing.
Project Ara Is Bringing Modular Phones To The Masses, Eventually
Google’s Project Ara is probably the most well-known of these modular phones, with the option to pull out and plug in new modules in different places, making the phone customizable with its features and its look. Google has been showing off prototypes of the phone for a while and was close to releasing the phone before moving the release date based on the phone’s modules falling off when dropped. The company said they have to work towards a better way of holding the modules on the phone while giving users the ability to quickly and easily replacing them.
Why Should You Care?
The reason a modular phone should be your next phone is simple… money. Having a phone that can be made better by purchasing single modules instead of an entirely new phone will save you money in the long run.
You’ll also be helping the environment. In 2010, mobile devices accounted for 19,500 tons of American e-waste, with 17,200 tons of it taking up room in landfills and the rest being recycled (around 11 percent). Modular phones have the ability to stop people from throwing out their phone when only a small part of it is actually broken. While modular phones won’t be taking all of those phones out of the landfills, they will almost certainly make a considerable dent in the amount of e-waste we make.
Modular phones are most definitely the future of that computer that goes into your pocket. What Google, along with other companies, have shown off is something that is easy to service in a way that most people (even your tech-illiterate friends) can manage to do. These devices have the possibility to be a disruptive force inside the mobile device industry along being one of the most environmentally friendly ideas we’ve had in awhile.
This content originally appeared on The Daily Engage, check it out if you want.
