User:Mapplejacks/sandbox/Phonebloks

Phonebloks is a modular smartphone concept created by Dutch designer Dave Hakkens to reduce electronic waste. While Phonebloks is not the first attempt at modular design in a phone , it is notable due to the extent of its modularity and the attention and support it has garnered. By attaching individual third-party components (called "bloks") to a main board, a user would create a personalized smartphone. These bloks can be replaced at will if they break or the user wishes to upgrade.

Bloks would be available in Blokstore, "an app store for hardware" where users could buy new and used bloks as well as sell back their old ones.

Concept
Phonebloks would consist of a main board onto which bloks could be snapped on by the user like Legos. Each blok is responsible for a unique function of the phone, much as a desktop computer has a distinct sound card, graphics card, processor, monitor, and power supply. As a result, instead of replacing the entire phone when it becomes obsolete or broken, one could simply replace the defective or performance-limiting part. If the consumer wanted a better camera, for example, he or she could swap their small generic camera blok for a larger zoom camera from a manufacturer such as Nikon or Canon instead of buying a phone with a better camera. In theory, this would lead to fewer people throwing away their phones and contributing to the ever-increasing problem of electronic waste. Smartphones based on the Phonebloks system would be sold part by part, as well as in starter sets. When assembled, the phone would have a screen covering the entirety of the front, volume bottons and headphone jacks along the outer edge, and bloks clicked into the back, forming a rectangular block shape overall.

Social Media Campaign
In addition to receiving coverage by major online news sources such as CNN, Forbes and Yahoo! News, Phonebloks has generated considerable hype on various social media sites, including Twitter, Facebook, and perhaps most notably, crowdspeaking platform Thunderclap, with over 950,000 supporters as of October 2013 and a social reach of over 360 million people.

Controversy
While many people support the concept's development into an actual product, there are objections as to the concept's viability and ultimate impact.

Economic Feasibility
One challenge this concept faces is the immense amount of money and manufacturing required in order to make the Phonebloks system a viable competitor with other major smartphone developers. Without many manufacturers making bloks, there would be a limited selection of bloks to choose from, taking away from the open-source appeal of the system.

Technical Barriers
Because all bloks are external of the main board, signals have significantly farther to travel between components. This extra distance could lead to noticeable delays between components. In addition, the quality of connection needed would require expensive pins and sockets, and developing a system to allow the user to arbitrarily place bloks would be very difficult. The end product would likely be much thicker than today's smartphones, and bloks would be at risk of dislodging from the main board.

Potential Increase of E-Waste
Critics of Phonebloks argue that, if put into practice, the concept (despite Hakkens' stated goal of lessening electronic waste ) could actually increase our e-waste output. They argue that by producing constantly better components, the consumer would have more pressure on them to replace several parts every few months; frequent replacement of bloks could for many consumers add up to more waste on average than getting a new phone every two years.

Implementation
After exceeding his goal of 900,000 supporters on Thunderclap, Hakkens started collaborating with Motorola on Project Ara, a more practical modular smartphone system comprised of an endoskeleton with slots on the back where bloks can slide in. Hakkens encourages the supporters of Phonebloks to stay involved in the design process. However, this new project faces many of the same challenges inherent in modular smartphone design.