The Ubuntu Edge was the first big move in mobile development with crowdsourcing ideas and now we have the second and most ambitious crowd-project on mobile change, Phonebloks.
Electronics are become less and less reusable, if something breaks inside a phone, it is replaced with a new one. Phonebloks challenges that idea by creating a phone built with blocky component parts, each one detachable and replaceable.
Phonebloks has three parts, the blocks, the base and the screen. All components attach to the back of the base and the front of the base connects to the screen. Each block represents a component, whether this is the battery, camera, storage or WiFi.
Users can customise their smartphone to be whatever they want, if they want a larger camera, they go and choose a big sensor and remove some storage space or battery space. Phonebloks is still just an idea, but given the right amount of social media output and funding, it can become a reality.
Essentially this would change the mobile landscape, similar to what the PC is today. Users can buy every single part of a PC to be exactly what they want, with Phonebloks this could be the same on mobile.
Apple, Samsung, HTC, Nokia and all the rest will still exist, but Phonebloks will be an option to buy all different components from manufacturers, add them to a smartphone built on open source ideas, it will be the build-your-own mobile.
Currently, Phonebloks is only looking for social media output, for people to get onto Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and other social networks and say they want this to be a reality. The designer, Dave Hakkens, believes it is a possibility in the near future – but needs funding and support from big names.
