What were they thinking?

It would be too hard to profit on this. Yearly releases of 700 USD phones is much better.

>From a financial standpoint
From a financial standpoint, it makes no sense to keep buying overpriced blocks to upgrade standards when you can just buy a relatively cheap phone every few years and again you are breaking it down into specific stuff like GPS which is just physically impossible. Just look at the concept pic in the OP, there are only 8 slots so the components have to be as generic as in a PC.

It failed because normies don't care about modular hardware, they just want to buy a new shiny selfie machine every year.
I fucking hate normies they ruin everything.

lol u mad

(hot girls) Do you want to take some "Selfies" with us??
(me, facepalming) Absolutely NOT!!

One-piece phones are already extremely fragile and you are adding a fuckload of additional failure points with this plus all that wasted space and duplicated structure for each block, this makes zero sense from an engineering standpoint.

>fully modular
except some components couldn't really be removed that easily and so you were limited with only actually removing/upgrading certain components like the camera

but of course we have retards like yourself who bought into the marketing hype, yet here you are shitting on other hypesters... ironic no?

fucking normie

Attached: normieville.jpg (960x720, 106K)

ideas like this are mostly PR puffery designed to extract money from investors

it doesn't need to make sense, make money, provide a service, or even DO anything at all, just perpetuate the grift and I hope that silicon valley either burns to the ground or is wholly swallowed by an earthquake

Begin make prototipe

>camera
>CPU (probably with GPU)
>RAM but that might have to be included with CPU
>secondary memory
>connectivity: bluetooth, cellular network, GPS, WiFi
>battery
>display
Am I missing something?

we get signal

fuck that shit i'll just buy a new thing every two years, same as always

Where's the headphone jack?
Speaker?
Microphone?
Sensors?
How will you fit a decent battery in a 2x2 slot?

The whole thing just introduces a billion of logistical issues and technical nightmares and if you just shove everything into the CPU slot or motherboard then the whole modularity concept is worthless.
Even with PCs people rarely stay with the same base, new standards mean new connections to fit those standards so you need to buy a new mobo if you want to do a significant upgrade.

good goy

Dude like replacing individual parts like a PC is bad!! Just like buy a new iPhone xs max 512gb every year, much more economical! Why spend $100 to get a new CPU/ram block, battery and reuse your perfectly old phone for another 3 years when you can just buy a new $1,499 iPhone every year. That makes more sense, buying a new phone every year because the company makes it slow down via updates and planned obsolescence, is just more economically sound and makes sense to me, replacing just what you need at 1/14th the cost is just dumb!! I don't care if this wasn't viable making it but the idea is sound and your "lol no" output is then ultimate good goy supporting greedy ass companies and you're proud of it as if buying a new iPhone every year is a good thing.

Attached: Its-funny-how-mad-people-are-getting-at-the-NPC-meme-Really-struck-at-their-hearts-I-think.jpg (385x498, 45K)

A funblox phone would be far more expensive, more fragile and still have the usual obsolescence problems that any phone has.

lol u mad

Speaker and microphone either included in the body itself or the display. Headphone jack and other basic connectors (which are now reduced to one USB) definitely in the body because you need them anyway. Make modules big enough so they could also have their connectors for any special needs (or maybe new standards). Sensors - I have no idea, I don't even know how big they are. A decent battery won't fit in a 2x2 slot, either the body would have a special slot for battery or you could simply make the battery bigger than 2x2. If on top of that it turns out that the modules waste too much space because you of modules with really small parts, make the modules slightly smaller.

I do see the problems though. Working this shit out would take quite a lot of money, therefore the first versions would be really expensive and wouldn't bring any real benefit to a common normie that only needs web browser, messenger and the phone itself. The coolest thing in this for me is customizing the phone. You want a HDMI connector because you want a portable device for displaying some presentations? There you go. You want a keyboard in your phone? There you go. There is a lot of niche applications that can't be fulfilled in modern world because it's not efficient money-wise to target insignificant niches. But with a modular solution it would be possible to make a specification-compliant body with a keyboard. This would make phones actual portable personal computers instead of slightly more functional phones.

it was hilarious seeing all those people chimp out about being recorded in the public

>This would make phones actual portable personal computers instead of slightly more functional phones.
have you considered that this idea might not be a good idea

>You want a HDMI connector because you want a portable device for displaying some presentations?
Buy a USB to HDMI converter.

>You want a keyboard in your phone?
Buy an USB keyboard and this wouldn't make sense as a component anyway, where would you even fit it?

No. Why wouldn't I want a flexible device in my pocket?

because maybe the reason smartphones are so popular is *because* they are not desktop PCs, only smaller

Even with PCs the trend was less fragmentation and more standardizing, there's no point in requiring a billion of small components when you can just fit them all in the mobo/CPU.

>we want the Jow Forums thinkpad audience

i think we can all agree that an iphone is very different from a 'traditional PC', and to say they have done well is an understatement.

iphones created a market pretty much from scratch, yes windows mobile and palm and rim existed but now they do not.

so, with these two statements of fact in mind: what's to be gained - besides satisfying the idea of 'tech for the sake of tech' - from introducing a desktop PC concept (modularity) to smartphones (buy thing, use thing)?

>we want the larping 'me big important businessman who says Business Idioms down the phone all day, and absolutely does not shitpost on Jow Forums from his childhood bedroom at all' audience

>Buy a USB to HDMI converter.
It works, but it's not full comfy. That's what I meant by insignificant niches. Also, there are functionalities that you can't really implement that way, like a professional camera. There were indeed phones that tried to have an actually good camera but then they were expensive just because it's niche - most people are absolutely fine with what modern phones have. And if you have more than one special use case for your phone, it almost becomes Apple experience with a bunch of dongles.
>inb4 just get a USB camera
No.
>keyboard wouldn't make sense as a component anyway
It would as a body onto which you slap on components. I just said that a few sentences later. The specification doesn't have to enforce anything on the body shape (except accepting the modules). You could even skip the display if you ever needed a small low-power ARM computer to sit somewhere and calculate some shit.

>It works, but it's not full comfy.
What?

>You could even skip the display if you ever needed a small low-power ARM computer to sit somewhere and calculate some shit.
Is the joke that you're describing the Raspberry Pi

>maybe is popular because it's not
I don't see what you wanted to say.

in that case, i'll rephrase what i said as a statement instead:
>smartphones aren't desktop PCs, and don't work like desktop PC, and the reason smartphones are popular is because they don't work like desktop PCs.
>it follows that making smartphones more like desktop PCs is a bad idea.

>What?
You have to carry a dongle around, surely just plugging it into your phone is comfier than reaching for the dongle in your backpack.
>Is the joke that you're describing the Raspberry Pi
Now imagine that instead of Raspberry Pi you have a modular platform with various modules ready to plug in.

>surely just plugging it into your phone is comfier than reaching for the dongle in your backpack
Why? You've been given a solution that meeds your needs, and now you're picking because it's not neat enough for you. Modularity like *this* is good, modularity like *that* is ... bad? What you're saying doesn't make sense.

>instead of Raspberry Pi you have a modular platform with various modules ready to plug in.
...do you know what a Raspberry Pi is. Am I being memed at here? Because just post your frog and be done with it ffs.

"guys I want a modular thing but not TOO modular because that would be inconvenient"

It still doesn't make much sense. Desktop PCs work like desktop PCs and they are popular. I mean, it doesn't really contradict it but it seems like a strange conclusion to make. I'd say smartphones are popular because there is an open ecosystem for software. It all began with iPhone and Android. I don't really get why iOS is popular but Android simply gained popularity because it's free and everybody can just put it on their phone to increase the amount of available software for it while actually reducing (I'm actually not sure if it's that easy) the work normally needed to make an OS for it. Therefore more people use it making the benefit even greater because of bigger selection of software which makes even more people use it and then we end up with bazillions of fart apps. Note how there already was Windows Mobile (and other mobile OSs) which more or less did what Android did - but it wasn't free.

all you've said in your post is why companies want to make and sell Android smartphones, which is irrelevant to the point i'm presenting.

from a consumer's perspective - someone who goes to a carrier store, and buys a phone on a plan - the thing they buy isn't a desktop PC, and doesn't work like a desktop PC, and that's why they use their smartphone instead of a desktop PC.

TOO modular would be inpractical because it would cost too much. No company would get the funding behind it because no one would buy it and it would have little interest. Basement dwelling neckbeards don't count

also, just pointing out that 'X is X and is popular, therefore making Y like X will make Y popular' is a logical fallacy

The problem is that there's little reason to upgrade to begin with. People do it because they like the idea of it. That's why you get things like the notches.
Their current phones service them perfectly well.

If Fairphone and project ara (or phone blocks. Why aren't we talking about phone blocks?) launched a year or two earlier than when they were ready they might have taken off because they had more of a reason to exist. There was actual reasons to upgrade, people were starting to demand HD streaming video as an example.

Now they just want less effective screen space and a horrible form. You're a fool if you're buying a new phone in the last couple years now.

>hey bro hold my beer watch thi-
>WOAH HEY ASSHOLE TAKE THOSE FREEDOM STEALING FRAMES OFF YOU UGLY FACE OR ILL BRAIN YA
>hey bro you got that on tape? hahahaha
way to let technology die "chads"

Not only that. You're also size constrained. It's not trivial to make small modular parts. And with that small scale comes more probability of connection failures. Something phones normally don't suffer from at all. It'd kill the product if the consumer faced that.

>Why? You've been given a solution that meeds your needs, and now you're picking because it's not neat enough for you. Modularity like *this* is good, modularity like *that* is ... bad? What you're saying doesn't make sense.
>this solution is good enough
>but this solution is better; easier to use
Gee, why would I prefer the better solution? I'm not saying that USB accessories are bad - they do work, but having something integrated in your phone is just comfier because phone is supposed to be something mobile which you can just carry around in your pocket. Having some functionality hidden in your backpack instead is just worse.
>why do you have a sound card in your PC when a USB external one works lol

>...do you know what a Raspberry Pi is
Yes. I know it has GPIO pins. But that's just what it is. Not PCIe-like bus, just GPIO pins for which you have to specially make your program depending on what you connect there. I don't know what's the bandwidth you could get though. Can you connect a network controller there and have it run at least as fast as the one that's connected on-board? And foremostly, that was an example for what the general modular solution could be used. It's very good that there is a specific application for which there is already a common solution (which means it actually has some use). If the modular solution could approach the efficiency of the specific solution, it would be great. I suppose the project didn't go off because it either couldn't reach it or the research would be too expensive.
>Am I being memed at here?
I'd like to ask this question.

Phonebloks makes even less technical sense and you know it's worthless when the guy that created it is a graphical designer saying the main goal of the thing is to "reduce e-waste".

Attached: Phonebloks_open.jpg (1920x1200, 138K)

>Having some functionality hidden in your backpack instead is just worse.
how is this functionally different from having a pocketful of interchangeable phone components, which is what you're apparently arguing in favour of

>Project ara~

Attached: ara.png (500x773, 183K)

Nah, imagine thinking a 2004 era insult is anything but a display of you being a nu-Jow Forums autistic zoomer is just sad, and your reply just makes me cringe. I'm sure that still attracts replies on your preferred site leddit, though, so good job take an upvote, friend.

>why companies want to make and sell Android smartphones
Android = smartphones. iOS and Android pretty much define what a smartphone is. Note that the word "smartphone" actually refers to the OS.
>which is irrelevant to the point i'm presenting.
Yes, I presented my point. It's called a discussion.
>that's why they use their smartphone instead of a desktop PC
But nobody uses a phone instead of a desktop PC because phone doesn't do what a desktop PC does. You can't do photoshop, CAD, game (mobile games are shit) or pretty much any complicated activity on a phone.

guy who is absolutely not mad online and is actually laughing IRL

It's different in that it's already in my phone and I don't need any more steps to have it. It's already there. I don't need to pull out a dongle and then connect it to have it. Am I just being baited all along?

Cringe

Yeah I know. I'm just saying it was a pretty strong meme. Ara was just a blip.

You're not listening to what I'm saying: smartphones are not desktop PCs. They're popular because they're not desktop PCs. It doesn't matter that you cant run Photoshop on a smartphone, because people aren't buying smartphones to run Photoshop.

>It's different in that it's already in my phone
So then use its modularity to swap in a component that you need.
>Am I just being baited all along?
So thin-skinned. The point I'm challenging you on is that there's no functional difference between carrying around a pocketful of phone chips, and a pocketful of dongles. If you're saying, well, I don't want to use dongles, then why have the phone be modular in the first place? Why not just buy a phone that Suits Your Needs in the first place?

Samefagging your own reply and now taking my insult
AND
You waited an hour, and replied instantly, for my reply to tell me how not eagerly you were hoping I'd acoustically screech for being told "u mad", man you have a sad life. Take care, hopefully you get awarded that best troll in the world award you so desperately crave. I'd vote for you out of sympathy, you clearly have nothing good in your life. Take care friendo, I hope you get to be happy one day.

this guy is definitely not mad, online

How is having to turn off the phone, insert the HDMI component, turn it back on and plug the HDMI cable any more comfy than just plugging the USB-HDMI converter?

They weren't

According to the guy who created the modular smartphone idea, Google finished pretty much everything but switched to being software centric and as a result the idea was scrapped.

youtube.com/watch?v=_wwrIpv38nE

>If you're saying, well, I don't want to use dongles, then why have the phone be modular in the first place?
To not use dongles.
>Why not just buy a phone that Suits Your Needs in the first place?
Because there is no one. Nobody makes niche phones and when they do it's very expensive because it's a niche product.

this is the only worthwhile post in the entire goddamn thread

But you just keep it inside all the time. The difference it that you can keep the HDMI module inside your phone at all times but you can't keep the dongle connected all the time. Possibly if you try really hard.

“Watch all those faggots shit their dicks over this.”

>ara ara

Attached: smug anime milf.png (397x354, 44K)

>New wifi
Or I don't give a fuck because it's a phone and current WiFi is fast enough lol

Every 3 years for me, that way it's free*

*buys new shiny selfie module*

A phone should last at least 10 years like my thinkpad.

>They're popular because they're not desktop PCs.

Holy shit what a retard

Would you buy a desktop smartphone?

It would have worked perfectly well. Google just did market research and found out normies don't give a shit and just want their phones to be disposable aluminum slabs, so they shitcanned it.

If you show me a desktop computer that can fit in my pocket has ever existed, I will be the first in line to purchase it.

The average lifecycle of a phone is 2 years, which is pathetic for a computing platform. The average lifecycle of a DIMM form-factor is ~6-8 years between interface standards. CPU sockets (made by non-jewish companies) track the memory interface. PCIe has been backwards compatible since 2003. The last SATA revision was 9 years ago and it provides plenty of bandwidth for the cheap NAND they stick in a normie phone. The only part of a mobile computer that expires after 2 years, due to physical constraints, is the battery itself. Oh wait, the Jews made the battery non-replaceable years ago. _Funny how that works._

Too ahead of its time. A modular phone should work, but it will inevitably be too big and thick with current technology. Regular phones with glued-together parts are cheaper, thinner and lasts a long time for most users.
When they manage to make the modules small enough, then the idea might come back. It's will be just like building a PC, so it will still be bigger than regular phones, but with more features, horsepower and repairability.

Attached: 1545528248712.jpg (540x751, 42K)

>it takes a graphical designer to render a bunch of cubes in blender
Millennials, everyone.