Phonebloks - custom build your own smartphone

[Hendo]

It was mentioned in the iPhone 5 thread that no-one is innovating anymore.

Although this is a concept and not an actual product yet, this is the most innovative idea for a phone I've seen in a long time.

The pessimist in me thinks it won't really happen but how cool would this be?

[Pikman]

Haha, yeah it is a really nice idea! I have done some work on trying to cool some of the phones around at the moment - huge undertaking - I wish them luck but yeah, keeping it cool will be a nightmare.

I wonder how it would all connect? Fun project to get involved in, maybe I ought to ask if they need a thermodynamisist!

Also - don't sleep with pessimists.

[Sambob]

I was having a conversation about this the other day. Somebody was saying apple would never go for it because they like the way they can show off their big new thing once every year or two, and they would lose that with this approach. I have to disagree because I think it would actually allow companies to market several new things more often, 'oh the new apple camera is out soon' and so on.

I personally think the reason this wont happen, certainly not from apple, is the main reason that people dont build their own PCs at the moment. Its far and away the best way to get great value, but its also complicated and leaves your setup more error prone and I think the same thing will apply to this approach with phones. I think its a good idea, but I dont see it being 'the next big thing'.

[Sly Reflex]

I can't see that phone being massive.

The components in a phone costs fuck all in comparison to what it actually costs to make. It's the man hours and the R&D that went into designing the phone in the first place that jacks the cost up.

It's a properly good idea to make a phone board like that but I can see it being massively expensive to build one or it won't be well supported by the companies providing parts. I think it'd be a headache getting everyone to conform to using certain parameters too. If it did take off it'd be the techy and hipster phone of choice though, I can see it being a big hit with those markets.

[Pikman]

Beaten by the big boys?

[Hendo]

Nah, sounds like Phonebloks made a deal.

[Sambob]

It says in the first line of the second paragraph that they have been working together.

[Pikman]

I really need to do more the skim read sometimes, still it's interesting news