Why Have Modular Smartphones Failed?
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- čas přidán 20. 03. 2017
- What do Project ARA, LG G5, Moto Z and Fairphone have in common? None of them were very successful. Why? - The Story Behind Episode 17
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EVERYONE NEEDS A GIRLFRIEND LIKE YOURS.
regalstreak haha, my first thought:"why isn't there any tech-interested girl in my environment?!":D you're such a lucky guy martin!
Unknown House Why!? Have you read the comments here!? lol
Unknown House Why!? Have you read the comments here!? lol
Rob V what are you trying to tell me? tell me what you mean and don't ask nonsense questions🙉
Unknown House Okay. Pardon me. Women aren't in tech much because of the men in tech. Men in tech are like children in a toy box and are too self-engaged or competitive to be considerate.
You forgot the lack of marketing. I wasn't even aware of these things being on the market.
Wulbulbul Lubbubwublub I wish I was aware of them
id have one right now to be honest.
They have never been on the market. Most were just concepts
they are on the market I have one. Motorola hasn't given up and made a few they just weren't marketed well as said in the video.
in times square they wouldnt stop showing the motorola moto z modules
they did alot of advertising. open your eyes weeb
I didn't even know modular phones could be bought! I thought they were still in development. I say the problem was shit advertising.
zerix01 Moto Z
Lawrence Wong Well, it is annoying in India
Lawrence Wong I see tons of motorola ads on tv and I'm in the Midwest US
Ari Feldberg Not in florida
same I only saw the motorolla ads
I think the most important reason why modular smartphones died is that it would stop the trend of buying a new smartphone every other year. Companies like Apple, Samsung, Google are making tons of money by selling you a slightly improved version of their flagship smartphone every year. If they would start selling modular phones, people wouldn’t need to buy a new smartphone every year because they could just buy a new modul for the desired improvement. So the companies make less money after all.
On addition to this users could start buying cheap moduls from third party manufacturers so that the smartphone manufacturers could even lose more money after all.
I mean just think about it, if you were a CEO of a smartphone company right now, would you rather put tons of money to develope a modular phone even if it means losing money or would you just keep selling a new smartphone every year while increasing the price?
Taht could be resolved in a lot of ways... Making the módules compatible with the same Brand only... Making them more expensive... And so on
They sell part not for a few bucks, and of course new parts to properly work would need another new part.
So in the end you pays more.
Digital cameras were delayed for decades because of this same reason
People to this day still buy items from third parties. As long as the merchandise works or functions.
@@naquatre this sort of makes sense.
For starters, I hadn't even heard of them until today, june 2018.
Does it ever get cold under that rock, tho ??
I haven’t heard of them until today, January 2019.
@@vhix64 January 19, 2019 here
Haven't heard of them intell July 24 2019
@@nint8441 Me too
Bad advertising, considering. Didn't even know the existed.
MonkeyMan249 same
MonkeyMan249
I knew about Project ara. I thought it was a really cool idea...
Same.
Same; I actually saw an LG G5 (or w/e its called) in person a few months ago and I never realized that it was modular. It makes me wonder who exactly the studies on the popular opinion of modular smartphones were asking if the general public probably wasn't aware of them to begin with.
yeah i was aware about this technology but when i hear about it was just an idea, i didn't know there was usable phones like that in the market
LG 5's removable battry was so dope
I would remove the battery just for fun and pretend its a rifle mag
JackOps art of the dynamic smartphone speed reload
if you can't change the core components (SoC, display etc.) then this whole concept of modularity was useless...
You could with project ara
Imagine if graphics cards had RAM slots.
True
@@Pseudynom you’d achieve nothing
Henry Ford can summarize easily what happened: "The customer can have the Model T in any color he wants, as long as it's black."
leDuke OfBacon if we ask what people want, they problably said faster horse
.
@@rickvian Or Aspirine
@@ibrahimramadan7297 -
Urban myth. Ford produced the Model T in colours, such as blue, maroon, etc.
I own the Moto Z. Watched a movie in bed on the projector mod as I feel asleep last night. Woke up and took my kids to school with my phone connected to the car dock mod. Now I'm watching this video on my phone connected to the JBL speaker mod. Lenovo mods are actually considered a success and garnered much more money than expected and they have 11 new mods coming out by June.
Exactly. These people don't have a clue that a JBL Moto Mod is far more convenient to use and to carrying than phone and a portable speaker around. I also have a loud portable bluetooth speaker. It isn't like a JBL Moto mod. Battery mod? Even with the insane battery life of my moto z play (+10 hours screen on time over 3 days... sometimes I hit 4th day without charging), you can never have enough battery life. Add battery mod and I can easily hit 15 hours screen time over 5 days. Funny how some people can get 3 hours screen time over 1 day and say "Battery mod is a gimmick".
13 Agreed
I have a z play and love the JBL mod. I don't really see a use in my life for the other ones, but I bought this phone specifically for it. I had an HTC M8, which I bought for the speakers. I wanted a newer phone with better stereo speakers, and the JBL mod filled that niche perfectly. it spends most of its life attached, I find the phone a bit small without it.
even me the same😊
The issue I see is that the only 2 mods that seem more useful in any situation than a platform agnostic external accessory are the speaker and battery. For example here are miscast projectors that fit in your pocket for $95, which I can use with my laptop, my tablet, my phone all without caring what OS any of those are running.
Modular Smartphones failed before I even knew they existed,
Dan Blackburn ha ha same
Dan Blackburn same hah:D
Dan Blackburn hasn't quit failed yet I'm using a Motorola Moto Z2 play don't give up hope to early
they failed because manufacturers want you to keep upgrading the whole phone to increase their profits. that's called planned obsolescence
I followed Project Ara literally since it's inception and the day I found out it was abandoned I facepalmed so hard XD
All the hype and it just died lol Your lucky you didn't get your hopes up because it was always going to fail
Why even bother with modular phones when MAJORITY of ppl don't even change their default wallpapers??
when you would not have to upgrade your phone every now and then, because you could just swap out Storage and ram parts when you have little money and not have to buy an entire phone. Then you'd understand.
@@SwastikSwarupDas It would be like pcs.
Many like me changes them every single hour.
iPhone users: Don't even change the ringtone
The majority do
You should at least be able to replace a phone's battery.
Either that, or at least they should put a larger battery there from the start. It's pathetic that "lasting a whole day" in delivery condition is considered good.
@larva Technically yes - but in practice, you'll probably end up voiding your warranty if you try to replace the battery yourself.
If Apple tried it they would change the connectors every year
GARITA Productions :3 That's how to get money
GARITA Productions and the connectors would need a replacement every year too and they would charge the price of the phone to fix
Jason Damm That's why I still have a 5s but the battery is swelling up so I need to get a new phone... Fast!
GARITA Productions apple phone are beginning to low technology than other smartphones
then switch to overpriced wireless only.
Its so sad watching this with a LG G5 in your hands :/
MindMadeTV
I had a hard time picking between that phone and the Moto Z. Not for module reasons as the G5 sucks in that department but because these are the only flagship phones without a huge screen that are affordable and have the "Always listening" feature not on most flagships. I like being able to use my voice to control my phone without touching it.
I went with the Moto Z and I like my decision because on top of everything it has now, they are going to release more mods for me to choose from this summer even though the only one I'm current seriously considering is the battery mod which I would've gotten a battery case if I went with the g5
MindMadeTV the reason i got a G5 is becuase of the whole hi fi audio bit , that never was made nor released for the US. And my carrier doesnt support or sell moto phones sadly
ewen h
What carrier?
Lawrence Wong im on US Cellular
ewen h
That works off of Verizon network I believe.
If I'm wrong and it works only on sprit, you'll f*cked.
apple first modular product for their iphone: the iHeadPhoneJack
Beautiful.
The iHole
iHomeButton
iRanDownBattery
I can do without the headphone jack, if they take away the charging port that will piss me off.
The most important thing that should be replaceable is battery.
Screen glass is another thing that should be made replaceable.
These project were cancelled because they were aware that the customers could buy those components from third parties for much less money. Plus its more profitable to sell you a new phone instead of just on piece of it.
Bread I rly hate to replay on old comments but there is a bigger problem. Third party companies could make cheaper and better modules.So more money lost
that is exactly their point! "they were aware that the customers could buy those components from third parties for much less money" so that means more money lost
Bread, I gave you a thumbs up because of your name. Is that valid? What´s your real name? Brad?
Not if they make their connectors proprietary
Crowdfunding modular phones?
Phones are becoming/have become a fairly low-involvement purchase. Modular phones require higher involvement than the average consumer is willing to have
Jake G No
Ish yes
True. The maximum for me after purchasing a phone is adding an SD card. I usually use them for a year or two before they die out and buy a new one. I don't need too many gizmos to do the things I do: calls and popular apps.
Yeah the general consensus is that ppl want it to "just work" they font want to work on it they dont want to learn about it it just has to work and thats it same with PC and other tech but maybe not as widespread
I hate the shift to sealed batteries inside of the new phones. Just another step towards planned obsolescence that the big companies can shove down our throats and force us to move to the incredibly shitty platform that Apple helped pioneer of pumping out a new model EVERY year.
My main phone was my Samsung Galaxy Note 4... and I LOVED that phone to death. Until it died on me, it wasn't until it finally died on me that I reluctantly upgraded to a Note 8. Its a great phone, absolutely love the screen... but I would give up the "water resistant" sealed exterior for my changeable battery in a heart beat. I hated upgrading to the Note 8 because it was supporting the damn sealed battery platform, but I've gotten used to the stylus and was unable to find another Sealed Note 4 at a decent price. Removable battery is dead, and the yearly cranking out of bleh models to milk their masses of their cash is now the new standard...
The main reason is profit, for each battery only the company will be able to provide the battery.
It’s ironic to me that the generation that is known for social and eco consciousness still chooses aesthetics over saving their environment. Fairphone is such a good product. I just hope that they can get the specs to where they need to be; then they can start working on delivering the ecosystem that their product promises
Unfortunatly like all the others they only have super massive huge phones. I do want to replace the local cinema. I just want a phone. :-/
@@monologic8418 Not only that, but repairability isn’t everything. I don’t care that a Framework laptop is repairable if I need to repair it every damn year because of a broken hinge.
A device needs to first prioritize reliability and then it’s even better if it’s repairable.
the social and eco conciousness is just for looks for most people. They have no problem inconveniencing others with it but moment you infringe on something they value its out the window.
Wait they launched already?
Perhaps its failed because there was literally no marketing for it?
yup lego should join in phone marketings lol
ratelslangen I agree. I never heard of modularized phone until this video
Dew Time I heard some advertisements before they released and none of them announced a release date. Since then, I hadn't heard of them. I was still waiting for them to finally get released and now I found out they already failed.
The real only one that i saw heavy advertising (on youtube) was the moto with the projector, camera, and a battery
Yes I agree too....i don't know actually
Lol,remember when we used to use phones for making phone calls
PaperBoy we still do but much more
PaperBoy Yeah, I member
remember when we used to use the internet for porn?
Paulo Tauren if your a hipster like me its on occasion.
I remember those days
I'm watching this on an LG G5, and I love that you can replace some important individual parts on it. I actually replaced my camera a few weeks ago with just a screwdriver, some cards and an included guitar pick, and a little tool to pop off the connector for the parts that required being disconnected.
I plan on replacing my battery soon, as it only has about 70-80% capacity left and dies quickly.
So yeah, this phone has some issues, but it has some positives that make it a good choice if you're not too concerned about overheating or battery life. LG also has a great camera on it, with some very good manual settings. Also with how cheap you can get one on eBay it's a good choice if you're looking for something cheap that has decent processing power and such. Just be wary of the battery problems.
Imagine dropping it and your phone falls on the floor everywhere.
Just use a case. Done.
That's what phones used to do. I dropped my Nokia and had to collect the main part, the battery, and the cover and put them back together.
@@Pseudynom I switched phones a few days ago, but my old phone still did. The exterior plastic case, the interior rubber case, the battery, the cover and the phone itself. I bought it 4 years ago I think
Girlfriend = camera tripod
Ha you watch to many Unbox Therapy videos son.
next birthday gift for his girlfriend: camera gimbal
fatshady92 I actually thought Jack was the camera man. He doesn't even exist
David FR Lol same
ayy 3 vaginas m8
This would really take off in the PC building community if the parts could be licensed to individual companies, such as
Nikon/Canon for the lens ,
Intel/AMD for the cpu,
Asus/EVGA/Gigabyte/MSI etc for the graphical component,
Bose/Sennheiser/BeatsByDre for speakers
etc etc etc for the rest of the parts
Did you just summarised the business model of NASA
@@RandomPerson-zx7zb ah yes, nasa, the company with amd only cpus
I love my Fairphone. Sustainability is important to save the world. Thumbs Up for Fairphone, they are here to stay.
Viva la Fairphone! I have a Fairphone 2 and my friend was impressed enough to buy a Fairphone 3 which is better (a better camera for starters). I'm happy to keep supporting this project because of their ethics and each generation improves. I have all that I need from a phone and love that I can fix things myself. Parts are also a lot cheaper to replace than any other smartphone I've owned. I think Fairphone will make it further. They aren't done by a long way - I predict that people who want a phone for looks and fancy features and an iPhone type camera will eventually find what they want in the Fairphone... but not just yet, this is a project which continues to develop and which needs support in order to succeed. My Fairphone 2 is my investment in the belief that tech shouldn't screw other people over... and at the same time fulfills that OCD itch to fix everything myself.
Bottom tier everything for upper mid range prices.... I'm not Sure "fair" is the right word to describe that phone.
And let's be honest...who ever replaces anything on a phone other than a screen or battery?
It's a gimmick
@@_multiverse_ not true, I've replaced the power supply port and audio. Who can easily replace those parts of their phone? The fact is most people don't have the choice. I've had iphones and been resentfully trapped as the battery failed. I've had a different iPhone with a cracked screen for a long time because it wasn't worth even bothering replacing due to the prohibitive cost. In my opinion, the inbuilt battery's slow and fail appears to be how these phones seem to have been designed to fail (it's apparent really). I've had other android based phones which failed in one way or another, (magically always just past the warrantee), and it wasn't always the battery nor the screen. Power supply issues and audio issues have occurred for me before. The most consistent phone I had was an early Samsung Galaxy which never failed and was instead stolen after 5 years of use. I'm hoping with occasional repairs at most my Fairphone 2 can last as long as 5 years. At which point it can be recycled. I'm not a demanding smartphone phone user but by the time I need a new Fairphone it will be a bit smoother and have a better camera (the Fairphone 3 already does). If you think the ethics or/and the modularity are gimmick then fair enough... but what Smartphone doesn't have gimmicks? I like these ones!
No tech reviewers ever consider sustainability. It's really irresponsible.
Yes! thumps up for a phone that only has USB 2.0, lacks camera features that even have 200€ phones and only supports a few frequency bands.
I could list more, but that should be enough.
I really hate the push to make phones more thin and leak. It's a performance neutral upgrade at best. Users barely even notice since they put the phone into cases anyways. Thinness is just easily quantifiable so engineers can brag that they've "improved" a phone by making it 0.1 mm thinner. Nobody needs that. The engineers are just working themselves into a corner when they could be focusing on cooler stuff like this.
Fergus Wyrm Phone makers have started to remove the headphone jack, which everyone knows about when iPhone 7 was released. Why? Just because phones got thinner. Shure, the invention of the headphone jack is very old but it is still really useful. This habit is becoming kind of annoying.
me: i want a cool modular computing device, plays all the new games, with universal ports that are full compatible with all my existing peripherals, andi can mount on my wrist.
companies: hey look at this we made a super cooler looking thing that literally functions exactly as the stuff we had last year
Gusty there is one, it's called building Your Own PC
Lord lammington
What kind of super-wrists do you have if you can mount a PC on them?
That's a strange question to ask. I'm talking about ideas for a smartphone. Not a desktop computer. You actually think im going to attempt to construct a wearable tower?
every single smartphone is modular if your jerryrigeverything
lord and savior gaben lmao
you're
?
What does jerry rig mean?
Scrub it means making it work by any means, like ducttaping a powerbank to the back as a "bigger battery"
I miss replaceable batteries.
I loved my Galaxy s5 for having it and was bummed to see that and the ir blaster go the way of the dodo
Heh i have done crazy stuff with that phone, like taking the battery off when school's phone inspection. But the teachers found out and i got called to bring the battery
It's not popular because hardly anyone knows about this. I had no idea this existed until now.
Google had the best chance. And then they gave it up.
They also had huge problems with latency, which is unsurprising. If the timing between motherboard, cpu, ram, etc isn't perfect the os will be completely unstable (or a programming miracle). The technology to link those components with low latency multi purpose cheap durable connections just doesn't exist.
+Test Account Please Ignore
Not that non-modular smartphones aren't unstable in the first place. I'd say a switch from the ARM architecture to the AMD64 (what PCs use) architecture is going to be necessary in the near future.
huh? i never heard that the arm-isa itself would cause stability problems. can you elaborate?
i'd personally would hope for risc-v, but it still needs quite a bit of work..
+sofias. orange
Process of elimination. I've had two smartphones on different platforms myself - one Android, one Windows Phone which has since been upgraded to Windows 10 Mobile. Neither was very stable. Furthermore, many people I know have mentioned stability issues with Android and iOS devices, from random crashes to sluggish performance and constant lock-ups. These results do not correlate with the ages of the devices. This points to a common factor between all three platforms and all manufacturers - the processor architecture.
The reason why I suggest the AMD64 architecture is that it's a tried and true architecture that's also incredibly common (Intel's x64 architecture is basically the AMD64 architecture with a few additions to allow for supercomputing applications with the Itanium series processors), and with a little work a smaller, albeit relatively low-power version of this architecture can easily be produced. In fact, the newer Microsoft Surface devices already use a miniaturized AMD64 architecture.
+VestedUTuber
you're mixing some things up here. firstly instruction set with processor design. the instruction set is the "language" that the processor speaks, it doesn't nessecarily say that much about how it works internally. AMD and Intel both have a sort of translator that converts the CISC AMD64-instructions into internal RISC ones.
i cannot confirm your experiences. i owned a Galaxy Nexus that ran fine and now i own an old-ish ASUS Zenfone with Atom processor, which runs fine as well.
more importantly ARM processors started to appear in server and supercomputer applications. these require high reliability. it wouldn't make sense if ARM where some kind of always-unstable peasant cpu..
Itanium was a processor running the rather unsuccessful IA64 instruction set. it was uncompatible with IA32 aka x86.
"x64" refers to AMD64, but i've only seen Microsoft using that term. some call it "x86_64". Intel refers to their AMD64-cpus as "EM64T" or "Intel 64".
Fairphone seems to take repairability too seriously. It doesn't need to be that easy to change the screen but it needs to be as easy as it is on some of the most repairable phones.
It doesn't need to be, but it certainly is fucking great.
I've seen a lot of people with a "Spider App" lately - so why do you think it's not needed?
the problem comes when you are buying the fairphone for only the sake of repairability than actual functionalily which kind of defeats any purpose
But if you could change the screen by yourself, they wouldn't be able to take your money for costly repairs and parts. It's all business
Most of those repairs aren't done by OEMs. They're done by dedicated repair shops, which usually aren't chains.
Thanks alot for this information I never thought I would search it up by myself. You earned a subscriber
one of the best tech-series on yt thanks for that
the main reason is benefits
companies make a lot of money by selling a new phone rather than letting you upgrade your phone.
and if you can repair your phone then how they can sell the refurbished phones!?
which is a really good business for like apple
the thing is the phones are there the consumers don't purchased it :/
just wanted to greet you from a fairphone 2 😊
I didn't know bricks had wifi
cool !
thank you for choosing fairphone. I was torn between fairphone and google pixel. I chose pixel and the next phone (4+ years from now) will be a fairphone if they still make them. It was just to weak (as weak as my old one, a 5 year old HTC), this will get less of a dealbreaker in the future for me.
Is yours also crashing every five minutes and has a stand by battery life of 2 hours because mine sure does. ffs Hate that piece o' crap.
Take it to the Fairphone forums, they're very active :)
Who actually care about bulk? Like "oh no 2 extra millimeters is unacceptable! Time to put an enormous case on it."
Exactly. People add bulk with a case anyways
I kind of like clunky phones. The Fairphone 2 looks really god imo.
Correct, people care about usability
I actually purposely bought a base because my phone was too slim and slippery to be practical. It was hard-ish to pick it up when laid down on a flat surface.
Very Eloquent with the "History has shown" but we know who you're referring. Ran across the Motorola at a Box Store and stoked that other than repair ability I was able to relay your findings before seeing this clip. Nice Job!
I'm watching this on the G5 right now.. Love it to death
This failed bc I've never heard of it. Meaning the marketing sucked. I'd buy this in a heartbeat.
DN 13 I was thinking the same thing. if I never came across this random video I would have never known these things existed
DN 13 I came across this phone only because of a Facebook video around two years ago and forgot about it until now.
DN 13 I didn't even know they were on the market :( dang it now I want one
I don't think they could market something that wouldn't work. False advertisement.
exactly I had never seen a fking ads on it until some enthusiast tech reviews comes out on CZcams. There's really no other ads not even on social media. the marketing team is dumb
Do people really spend $800 on a smartphone? You could get a graphics PC for that!
umm yea? ppl nowadays actually buy apple products lmao
You could barely buy half a graphics PC for 800 lol.
bazzare.
As a professional CGI freelancer my two previous to current work PC's cost around £600 each. CHeck the showreel on my chanel if you have doupt of thier power.
A graphics PC would need 16gb RAM as a minimum, and you'd want at least a mid range GPU (1050ti or 1060 at least), you'd need a monitor, mouse, etc. Of course you can build a meh PC for 800 but it won't be a proper workstation. If all you're doing is a bit of Photoshop and some video editing then get a cheap laptop. Also, what the hell is a 1060ti?
You sound very articulate, well researched...i enjoyed the video.
It's beyond me why your channel is not more popular. Some of the best tech content I seen in a while. Very good work. Keep it up.
I've noticed that the Moto Z line has become a relatively popular phone at my high school, even beating out the Google Pixel population. If I were to rank the most popular phones at my high school, it would look something like this:
1. iPhone (most students)
2. Samsung (most non-iphone students)
3. Moto Z lineup (about 8-12 students out of 800)
4. Others (Google Pixel at 2/800, generic cheap smartphones, dumbphones)
Kenneth Schlatter my school has like 60% iPhones, 30% Galaxy's, and 10% other
Mine:
98.9% Generic Androids (Motorolas,Samsungs,Alcatels,Lenovo)
1.1% iPhone
0.9% Dumbphones
You clearly have never tried a iPhone or just very low intelligence level, iPhones may not be better then samsung or others but they are not bad, They have a beautiful 768p Display and arguably the best touch ID in the world.
Lol, you're talking about your intelligence but you still spell "satisfied" wrong.
lol i make fun of the apple kids because they cant download anything or get mods
Your content is so so good. Thanks
It's pointless if you can't upgrade cpu ram etc.
Fallcon companies won't do that becaude then nobody would buy a new phone every year......
Heeth Jain they would however buy module upgrades every year
spawnof200 ya that's the reason companies won't be able to sell new phones every year
Fallcon how much RAM do u even really need on a phone anyways? its not like ur doing two things at once on it.
they failed because manufacturers want you to keep upgrading the whole phone to increase their profits. that's called planned obsolescence
If you could upgrade the parts in your phone then no one would buy a new flagship phone.
I guess this is one reason why companies do not want to make one.
Adrien Alves Say you needed a faster CPU. The CPU would take up more power, thus, needing you to need more power. Having to need more power might need you to take out another module, making another problem. The only way I can think of fixing this is to have the phone have an adapter, so you could hold more modules.
kevin themoderator exactly !!!
So in the end, it's better for everyone for large companies to stick with stock-only phones. Companies don't lose revenue, and people won't screw up their phones with dumbass after-market parts and complain to said phone company later.
Charlie Foxtrot that's also a valid point
I didn't even know my g5 was modular. So thank you for enlightening me. Its actually an idea I have always wanted to try out
I really liked your take on this, what do you say about old phones. You cannot just throw away.
They tried so hard and _never_ marketed them.. exactly none of people who could be interested never knew they exist..commercical at cimena, while most promising clients for those almost never go to cinema XD. I found that LG5 G5 existed lke, two days ago and I _follow_ all tech news
EllAntares the Motorola ads were constantly on TV here...
not even they werent here... manages in their office here siad that the model never existed
I even did multiple explicit google searches for it over the years. The only one I could find was the fair phone which only works in Europe.
Exactly! I didn't even know of the LG G5 LOL. Not that the G5 is that much modular, tho'.
wrong i follow a lot of tech news also when the g5 came out it was all over the place honestly if your tech sources didnt cover the g5 you shouldnt get your info from them also bunch of youtube ads for it
The real problem is : imagine a world where kids in school stole snapdragons.
sham pera: Then you register your modules with a cloud service and report it stolen and remotely disable the component. The manufacturer would then be able to record the IMEI identifier of any other device it is inserted into and alert the authorities of either the GPS or cell-triangulated position of the thief. Think of it as "Find My iPhone" for modules.
I did buy the Moto with the Speakers and etc so I guess I did fall into these categories.Awesome Video by the way,But I also gave it to someone for them to enjoy.Thanks so much for sharing and I think I am definitely one of those people who just love anything that is different and like many different devices.Thanks again for sharing Deb 😉👌✌
haven’t heard of this. now interested.
The fairphone looks quite interestinfg, thanks for letting me know about it!: D
Sounds like a bunch of far-left nonsense. They go out of their way to get "conflict-free" tungsten from Africa yet they still ship the refined materials off the China where underpaid factory workers do the manufacturing.
Mr. White at least they are trying. See there post about working conditions for there assembly factories. www.fairphone.com/en/our-goals/social-work-values/
+JeroenDV If they were really trying they'd have factories in America.
Mr. White and then the production cost would be so high that they went out of business.
Besides in terms of raw economics it's also better for those people to have shit jobs that they can survive on than no jobs leading to them dying from starvation. Probably exaggerated as I don't know much about chinese social policy but you get the point.
+lollipopskulltagger No, it sounds like globalist SJW nonsense. You're paying more for "conflict-free" tungsten and you're also paying more for European raw materials processing, why can't you pay more for American manufacturing? And why should I care about foreigners getting higher-paying jobs when these businesses are refusing to hire Americans?
It failed because once people buy the phone for 400 bucks and more people don't want to pay more money to add things to it when your spending too much already...
You drop that once and everything goes everywhere
That was a well written, well made video!
why google why kill ara it looked so good i really wish i had one before it died
Google killed Project Ara because they didn't want another Google Glass fiasco.
Big companies do market research, and if they are smart they pay close attention to it.
They had many issues getting Android optimized on ARA so that was one of the big issues to
We Should Mod The New IPhones To Have A Headphone Jack
Awesome Falcon 15! I still have a 5s my upgrade is gonna be a Moto Z Play
Maybe
Awesome Falcon 15! Buy a $20 Bluetooth adapter.
not everything with an Aux port has bluetooth, you know
Awesome Falcon 15! drill a 3.5 mm hole to the left of the charging port
I have the Fairphone 2 and I really like it. I think the module idea is working fair enough with it. I hope I can keep on using the same phone a long time.
removable battery is very useful and made upgrading to larger batteries more convenient/possible. I would love to see replaceable screens be a thing. otherwise, none of the other features matter really. like you mentioned, all those other possible things could just be connected as an external device through one of the phones interfaces.
Me? I just want a freakin keyboard again...
shatara42 then buy a computer and a keyboard?
Got one already. It's kinda hard to fit in my pants, though.
shatara42 blackberry anyone?
shatara42 welcome to the KeyOne club
shatara42 - That's why it took me so long to abandon by Motorola Droid 4, even though it had become woefully underpowered. It had a slide out, physical keyboard. I could actually type reasonable emails and even documents with it. Sigh...
I was right back then... Why did I think it would become a failure?
Firstly "phoneblocks" was a designer's idea, it wasn't an engineer's or at least an entrepeneur's idea. Google, LG, etc. just cought on with the hype, simply to raise their own popularity.
In order to make swappable CPUs you will need to completely redesign the CPUs; Look even laptop CPUs are often soldered to the PCB, you will need to design connectors that are tiny, have a lot of pins and are still reliable. _Have you ever broken a micro-USB-connector? This is even worse._
Then they had the idea of universal blocks: That means you will need a connector that is optimized for everything, a PC has all these different connectors for a reason.
USB, thunderbolt and firewire are universal, they can carry signals a long distance and they can carry power
PCIe connectors have lower latency, higher throughput, better reliability, but don't allow hot swapping, you can't insert a GPU when your PC is running. And PCIe are semi-universal, you can plug a GPU, SSD, soundcard, lancard into the same slot, but that's it.
The Ram moludes and the CPU socket have even lower latency and higher throughput; but the memory socket can only do 1 thing: access memory, you can't use it for anything else.
Running RAM on something like USB would require another controller-chip to translate the signal, that translation will add latency, USB itself has already more latency, and lower throughput, so the CPU will be constantly waiting.
---
Basically what you want is a connector that does it all, which is comparable to a vehicle with the speed of a lamborghini, the loading space of a semi-truck, the fuel consumption of a prius, the reliability of a toyota crown, that is as easy to park as a bike.
How could this possible not turn out to be a failure?
sasja de vries. Nobody read this lmao
Snowvi true!
Snowvi
I did
Take a look at old minicomputers like the PDP-11, and even some newer "retro" machines like the RC2014. They share a bus between all components, and the CPU could theoretically be swapped (with power cut) with a different one, sharing the same bus.
sasja de vries. Best reply, and boy did the author overlook this fact.
I wonder if Framework will make a difference in the laptop sphere, one of my biggest hang ups over buying one is the uncertainty wether or not they will actually exist in 3-5 years
For me it was a great feedback. Thank you very much.
I think it's mostly because they were hardly marketed. I only ever saw a concept of it a while back.
GamerBoyDevin i didnt even know they existed
Maybe it’s only because all you were exposed to was a concept. Maybe it’s just a bad idea and didn’t work because it was impractical.
Why dont they just make 3 part modular, one for screen, one for battery and one for all other components. that will be cool
No it won't..If you are thinking that having a modular phone you can update your current screen,battery to a much better one then you are wrong...It is really difficult to make a much better battery or screen with the same dimensions...So it would just be a useless expense..
Not useless, batteries wear out over time and being able to replace them easily is actually a very nice feature that we USED to have until all the manufacturers decided to switch to a slimmer design.
www.puzzlephone.com/ there you go! Coming this year.. hopefully. Regard indiegogo backer.
If battery's wear out(pretty rare) then modularity is not the solution....Instead batteries should be made more longlasting materials...
Batteries wearing out aren't rare at all, it's actually a pretty common problem with modern (Lithium-Ion Polymer) rechargeable batteries. While it would be nice, unfortunately we can't simply use "longer-lasting" materials as this is a fundamental problem with the way Li-Ion batteries work. In a nutshell, when charging the battery, the lithium gravitates towards the anode (negative electrode), when discharging, the lithium does not completely leave the anode, instead some lithium atoms stay on the surface of the anode, creating a layer (called SEI) of lithium oxide & carbonate that basically decreases the amount of anode surface area exposed to the lithium. The cathode (positive electrode) also exhibits a similar problem, if the battery is overcharged or the battery is too hot, the cathode starts oxidizing and degrading. Both of these chemical reactions are what cause batteries to, over time, lose their capacity.
I heard this back in around 2013. It's just sad with the "build your own smartphone" didn't hit big before it was scrapped.
Really good analysis.
I think you "research" was limited to say the least. The main reported reason for the cancellation of Project ARA was the limitation of the electrical contacts. This would never allow a modular phone to work where the processor or ram could be swapped. You failed to mention that the ARA project was developed to a working prototype however it lacked many of the feature they had claimed. To summarise there was no point in developing a modular phone where so few of the components were actually modular. www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2459028/project-ara-google-wont-let-you-touch-smartphones-processor-screen-or-ram
I actually know quite a lot of people that were interested in Google's Project Ara. And Google had a very solid and good design. If it didn't fail for the reason it did (it didn't have to do with the lack of market, etc), it probably would have sold fairly well.
The issue with it, was they were having many problems with the modules themselves and the frame. Mainly keeping the modules attached to the frame as well as how to handle module changes on the fly. That is what killed it. It just took to long to try and solve those issues.
Now with the LG G5 and the Moto Z. I wouldn't call those modular smartphones. Mainly because the modules were just peripherals since you could only have one at a time. This caused them to not be well received and there was the lack of marketing. That is why those phones failed.
I think this comment is more reasonable
Really well done
Super cool video!
it's still ahead of its time
people are so attached to 'regular' smartphone
when they want to use it, they just use it
maybe in the future it'll become the norm
I doubt it. Humans don't really like options. There are scientific studies that prove that the more options one person has and if he/she can't get them all the person will feel unhappy regardless of what the person chose.
So.... communists?
i like options and i guess im not human now
anikanbounty97
Me, too.
You Sir are slowly becoming one of my favorite channels here, your steady increase in SUBS make me happy.
Keep doing what you're doing this is what you're really good at!
I remember I was so excited to see this in production when I was in high school. I even did a presentation for one of speech class about this. I'm kinda sad that everyone is not as enthusiastic about tech as me. I hope see this kind of products on the market soon again.
i really like this series
I don't like the idea of dropping my phone and collecting all the pieces from floor
you prefer bringing it to the repair shop in one broken piece?
What if the parts were properly secured, like on the Fairphone?
I think the phone like that would be a great idea, they should just make it so that you can lock the pieces in place or something like that.
Soulution: A case, for every piece.
Idea: Put a fucking case on it
I would love to see more "story behind" where you talk about success stories rather than those who fail :)
+Faldoable good point, I guess I'm getting a little negative here :D
I think it is ok to be negative in these "story behind" series, so that people can learn from the failure experience others had.
Yep. And usually more useful too. Can't weed out winners bias without those, and people are waaaaay too vulnerable to it.
you learn nothing from the success of others, instead you learn everything from their failures
+Mr.Robot
You learn from success, but only when you contrast it with not so successful cases, while for failures you just learn overall. The main point of learning from success is to have similar failures to contrast with and isolate things that trully helped from those that didn't (not just "failure", but what worked and what didn't work that is as similar as possible e.g. MS's early tablet like device vs Apple's iPad).
You could also learn a bunch from success alone if you had access to unbiased and complete data from the project. But unless it is your own project (and even then), you're highly unlikely to get that kind of data.
Aw your girlfriend was your cameraman what a nice way to meet up
Majd Madani It probably was the other way round
They didn't fail. They haven't even started.
robo they will never take off
If modular smartphones were introduced ten years ago, it would have been a hit. There are so many reasons why modular smartphones failed. Nowadays, everyone wants convenience and simplicity in almost everything. We prefer fully built phones complete with needed devices. Nobody wants to deal with complications set up. It's inconvenient. Additionally, user experience and user interface (ux/ui) are essential as they rapidly change. If you were to compare iPhone's and Android's ux/ui, hands down iPhone is preferred as it provides clean and smart visuals. You can hate on Apple all you want, but they know for sure they are innovative when keeping up with trends by updating the iOS frequently. Apart from that, modular smartphones should have invested more on advertising and marketing. Those are the main key for promoting their product.
most people are not tech geeks like us . that's the reason modular concept failed and his videos don't have many views ...
I do have a Fairphone 2 and am decently happy with it. I already was able to upgrade the cameras for a fraction of the price of a new phone and "repaired" it by replacing a damaged module that contained the broken primary microphone. Very neat compared to not having it at all for multiple weeks while a service store repairs it for the costs of a new phone. But it does have a lot of child diseases of which I think would be non-issues if there was generally more know-how on the market of modular phones.
As long as the phone supports OTG and the USB connector provides some hardware (mostly gadgets) expandability, I'm fine. You can use special phone cases with gadgets integrated into it that connects to the phone trough the USB interface. And as long as it contains a hub chip, it doesn't need to compromise the useability of the port.
Big companies are greedy.
くたばれクソタレ thats the real reason. they are making people want what they make. who wouldnt want something personalized.
Smartphones manage to be as compact, powerful and cheap as they are because their core systems are heavily integrated. Asking for modularity without sacrificing any of those three is the engineering equivalent of waving a magic wand.
dont you just love it when the general croud ruins what you really want dispite it being flat-out superior?
2 years late but yeah I agree
I only heard about them now, yet i so strongly agree
Did you both just agree?
1:20 OMG I Remember this commercial and never realize what happens to modular phones
i have a Fairphone and its kinda modular you can switch your stuff when it is broken easily
The thing about the Moto Z is that it's an amazing phone even without mods. Plus some of them are actually still convenient. The battery means you can charge your phone without needing a cable (for the phone or for the bank). Also, the new car dock is really cool.
Harry GoldbergTV I love mine. The camera is amazing and convenient when on vacation. I love the Pico projector and the speaker rocks.
Smartphones are meant to be multifunctional and do a reasonably good job at working well enough in a standard situation, but if you want to do really good photos you buy a camera, if you want to do high level filming you buy a videocamera. Etc etc etc.
There is also the technical constraints.
Getting all those modules to be able to communicate correctly would require very high speed IO, akin to what you would see on the bottom of an LGA or PGA CPU. Those ARA pads are not going to cut it for something like a CPU or a camera.
Too much damn work and pieces... hell, people can't even keep up with headphones
It died because the majority opinion isn't always the best opinion
Godwin's Law right here, but superspeed.
The unfortunate truths of society are: 1. People will not know that they want something until they actually have it in their hands and are trying it, and 2. People are lazy and don't want to think in any real level of depth about anything. These two factors combine into an infinite amount of "This is why we don't have nice things."
Donald Trump is the best example ;]
JooJ SilvZ You are literally being a normie. Also Trump didn't win the popular vote. Democracy in America died years ago.
If it were like that, no one woud ever breed lmao
I had a Fairphone for a while, and while I think the small amount of extra bulk wasn't a problem, I did feel that they went a little overboard. I'm perfectly happy with having to use a screwdriver to take the phone apart, so the clever latching mechanism on the screen was a bit unnecessary for instance. There were some other small things that could basically be explained by it being a first generation product from a small company (initially the screen and camera were poorly calibrated (later fixed in software), some chargers made the touch screen freak out, the first cover cracked pretty quickly (they did send a re-engineered replacement at no charge))(the Fairphone 1 was a rebranded Xiaomi, so the 2 in the video is actually their first phone). It all added up to a value proposition that I couldn't justify to myself when Qualcomm dropped support for the SoC used, meaning it wouldn't get newer Android versions (although I should mention that they managed to get at least one more version working, so good on them). So I really want them to succeed, but the Fairphone 2 was just a bit too expensive for what I got. (having said that though, I've since had to replace 2 second hand LG G4's of which the power delivery IC broke. If my Fairphone 2 would still be working, I'd now have broken even, cost wise)
Myself and the 4 other people I've met with the Moto Z love it. With the battery pack, I can go 3 days on a single charge w/ medium usage. I can attach the speaker for when I'm at work and play music for whole the store. When I want my phone to be thinner, I can attach the default cover. I eventually plan to get the camera attachment because I go to lots of concerts and need the added zoom and quality. Plus, I got my Moto for ~$350 which is on par or considerably less than other smartphones. What isn't there to like?
the reason they weren't popular is because Apple didn't "innovate" a modular iPhone.
+TheSpector I think that is actually a part of the problem. When Apple makes changes to their iPhone, you can bet that nearly every peripheral maker runs to develop new accessories that fit this new design. If they made a modular phone, we would have hundreds of modules that might prove to be useful. When Motorola or LG makes a modular phone, we get 3 to 5 modules that are so-so
TechAltar And the worst thing is that other manufacturer copy Apple's philosophy because they think that their sales numbers represent the usefulness of their products. *cough* removing headphone jacks *cough* only usb-c ports on laptops *cough*
+TechAltar that reveals another side of the problem. As part of its marketing campaign, Apple could easily afford to hire other companies to develop "Apple" peripherals so the main product and functionality are ready to be used from the start. But they wont for the reasons you listed and others. Any smaller company, with or not some kind of vision, any aspiring competitor wanting to upset the market, would have to do that to having enough staying power to set any sort of foothold on the market and force the bigger ones to adapt or lose ground. Starting off with just a couple of peripherals that can be easily be replaced by other products of similar price and functionality just wont do, which is the best they can afford, wont do it. So you have this catch 22 situation where you need to be big enough to cause an impact, but you won't become that big if you just do what the dominant companies are doing (cause they will just out do you in their own game).
+TheSpector I agree with you but here's a *cough drop*
So much is driven by the big dogs
The paradox of choice.
Having more choice is actually a bad thing.
Steve Jobs understood it, that's why in his day you had ONE model of iPhone. The only thing you could choose was how much storage it had.