The revolution seemed to come out of nowhere. A mysterious new product which many people questioned has now taken over the greater part of our lives. It controls what we do in our free time, who we talk to, and the information we receive (and arguably how we process said information). And the mystery product in question is…
THE SMARTPHONE (tada!)
Yes, the ever ubiquitous smartphone. The incessant piece of technology that (according to a certain study) will be owned by 6.1 BILLION people in the world by 2020! That’s insane!
As many of us know, the smartphone has changed a lot in the past two to three decades, which can be seen with this nifty infographic:
Not only have they changed in size and shape, but also in speed and power. There’s no doubting the fact that every year, newer and more powerful smartphones are constantly being released. And that’s great. Until it’s not cool anymore.
You may have noticed that there has been a bit of stagnation in the smartphone innovation department. People are simply getting tired of getting new smartphones just because they are “bigger”, “faster”, etc. Our original allure to the smartphone has worn off, and it’s obvious why. It even makes the challenge of buying smartphone somewhat pointless. Like, what’s the point of me getting a Samsung Galaxy S7 or the iPhone 6S when there’s just gonna be a Samsung Galaxy S8 and iPhone 7 in less than 12 months?
One solution that some companies have tried to remedy this problem is by adding niche features to their smartphones, like the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge with its double-curved screen, or the iPhone 6S and its 3-D Touch. I’m not saying that they’re not nice features, but ask yourself: How many times do you actually find yourself using this feature naturally, and not just because you can?
Luckily, some smartphone companies have caught on to this trend and have come up with a solution to shake up the smartphone market once again. Introducing: the modular smartphone:
In case you don’t know what a modular smartphone is, I wouldn’t blame you. It hasn’t been talked about so much until the past couple of months. Basically, a modular smartphone is a smartphone that has different removable parts, or “modules”. You can switch out theses modules for different ones to change the capabilities of your phone.
If that explanation still confuses you, think about the way that you can change you phone battery (for those of you who have smartphones with removable batteries). Now imagine doing that for your camera, GPU (graphics processing unit), CPU (central processing unit), and other things. That is the ultimate goal of the modular smartphone, which truly has real-world applications.
For example, if your current RAM (random access memory) isn’t large enough to run certain apps, simply swap it out for a larger RAM. Or if you need to take a higher resolution picture, just swap out your camera module for a more powerful one. Or do you simply want a small compartment on your phone to keep things like your keys and maybe some mints? Just tag one onto your smartphone.
This is truly the dream of Google, who has been working on a special project for the past decade called Project ARA. Project ARA is the ultimate realization of the modular smartphone. It’s also seen in the picture above. To learn more about Project ARA, check out this link. While it was seemingly suspended for a few years, Google has now promised that we’ll be seeing developer editions of it coming out this fall, with the official consumer-ready versions coming out sometime in 2017 (if anyone would like to sponsor me for the dev-edition, I’d appreciate that).
But if you want to get a taste of what modular smartphones can do now, then you’re in luck. Both LG and Motorola have recently released new modular smartphones that will be released later this year.
LG
In LG’s corner, we have the new LG G5, which has three different modules to give the phone different effects. It doesn’t work quite the same as Google’s Project ARA, but it’s still fairly innovative. It consists of having a detachable bottom part of the phone, which you can remove and insert the different modules into. The three modules are the Camera Grip module (which allows you better control of the G5’s camera), the Sound module (basically a larger speaker), and a battery module (longer battery life, you get the gist). If you’d like, you can buy this right now.
Motorola
On Motorola’s side, a new smartphone that was actually just announced today is called the Moto Z Droid Edition (along with the Moto Z Force Droid Edition). This also utilizes three different modules, but the design of it is different. Instead, you simply snap of the back of the smartphone and replace it with the module you choose. The three modules are the sound module (again, bigger, louder speaker), the projector module (which can project videos on the Moto Z up to 70 inches in screen size), and the battery module (which promises an extra 22 hours of battery life). While this is not for sale yet, expect it to start selling sometime around August or September. You can see more about it here.
There are a large variety of questions that people may ask about modular smartphones, such as “Will this make buying new smartphones obsolete?”, “Will modules be to expensive to be worth it?”, or even “Why even bother with modular smartphones anyways?”. These are all very good questions, and unfortunately I do not have the answers. Only time will tell. But in my opinion, the rise of the modular smartphone is a step in the right direction for the long overdue innovation in the smartphone market. It shows how the industry is at least attempting to appeal to its customers demands for more control over their phones.
But what do you think? Do you think that this is all worth it? And if so, which modular smartphone are you most excited for? I’m personally most excited for Google’s Project ARA, since it seems to have the most potential. But let me know what you think!
