Remember the Nokia 3310? Yeah, the phone that was nicknamed as the “brick” by all who tried to break (but failed). People threw it FROM a building, people threw it ON a building, and it never broke a sweat. Even under extreme brutality where people thought they killed it; it almost always broke into 3 exact pieces, that could be clicked back into place and carry on as if nothing happened. You see, this is the specific trait of the phone that I am focusing on. Its Modularity.
You had the freedom to swap the battery, change the outer shell and fix the phone no matter what broke. It wasn’t an outstanding modular phone back then. All phones of this era came standard with these traits. People just saw repairability and modularity as something that they should expect without announcement.
Then came 2007...
STEVE JOB SAYS HI, AND SMARTPHONES WERE BORN
I completely agree that the modern-day smartphone changed the fundamental way we see mobile phones. The definition of a phone changed from a device to make calls, to a fully-fledged computer in your palms. If we were to spend time talking about how beneficial smartphones are, I could ram around for hours. I mean can any of us live without a smartphone for a week? I tried... And it is HARD.
But under the blankets of all that the smartphones did for the better, the modularity that was once taken for granted, just drifted away from our sight.
Nowadays, we spend a kidney and a half to buy a phone and when technicians “wave the white flag” once something goes wrong. It genuinely hurts. What was once taken for granted, now seems like something that we yearn for.
I completely agree that the modern-day smartphone changed the fundamental way we see mobile phones. The definition of a phone changed from a device to make calls, to a fully-fledged computer in your palms. If we were to spend time talking about how beneficial smartphones are, I could ram around for hours. I mean can any of us live without a smartphone for a week? I tried... And it is HARD.
But under the blankets of all that the smartphones did for the better, the modularity that was once taken for granted, just drifted away from our sight.
Nowadays, we spend a kidney and a half to buy a phone and when technicians “wave the white flag” once something goes wrong. It genuinely hurts. What was once taken for granted, now seems like something that we yearn for.
PEOPLE REALIZE WHAT THEY LOST
At some point, companies turned conscious towards what they’ve lost and tried to bring it back. Remember project ARA from google? A project idea that was inspired from Blok-Store.
Wherein you have a base block as a central piece, and you can attach different components on that base block and basically Lego your way into making a phone. The idea sounded cool! It still is.
Imagine, you throw your phone down, you break the speakers and the camera. You can not only fix them by only replacing what had been damaged but also upgrade it to whatever the trend seeks. It seemed like THE innovation that was gonna carry the smartphone market forward, but it didn't.
This was cool, but only on a research paper. The idea was just practically impossible for even giants like google to build, so it flunked.
Even LG showed up their innovation towards modularity with their LG G5, with a battery that could be removed and accessories that could be added but that never took off for the same impracticality in their design.
Motorola came by and showed a phone where we had external pins where you can attach accessories, this idea seemed cool and practical, but Motorola themselves weren’t too invested in this idea, so they never took this forward, and the Z series moto phones just disappeared.
I MEAN FAIRPHONE EXISTS... RIGHT?
Yeah, it absolutely does. In 2013 the Dutch company made it their status quo to create a phone where every part of it is user repairable. Do you have a screwdriver? Can you read? If the answer to both questions is a yes, then congratulations you can repair almost everything in the phone.
COOL! I know, and this was almost what the Nokia 3310 once gave without even us asking for it, and this is what made the company last in the market for 12 years and counting...
Yet, it wasn’t the right step ahead, that's why it never became mainstream. This phone had bad specs, slow software, no water certification cuz a repairable phone can’t be glued shut and most definitely did not win any beauty pageants. Might be a good conversation starter, but that’s about it.
Overall, this phone was niche, only applied to those who were dead serious about their sustainability goals and those who cared more about environment than value for money, and let’s be real, that is neither me nor you.
Just go around with a Fairphone in one hand and a Samsung phone in another. People are gonna lean towards the phone that is harder to repair but looks pretty. In essence, the Samsung.
So, we slowly gave up the thought of modular phone becoming a thing.
CAN NOTHING BRING BACK MODULARITY?
Well seems like it. Nothing seems like they have a new take on modularity (pun intended). More specifically, CMF by nothing seems like a torch in the modularity tunnel which for once, seems promising. Don't get me wrong, they are still a new kid on the block, the company itself is younger than my moustache, yet I am intrigued by what they might bring to the table in the following years if executed perfectly, cuz their idea is different from that of the LGs, Googles and the Fairphones. They instead pick up where Moto left off.
Their idea is more on the lines of providing a decent budget phone. Solid phone, decent specs and a good deal for the average audience.
But the entire back has a dozen exposed screws, aesthetic or not you decide, but functionally though, having those screws mean that you can unscrew a few of them, and add whatever accessory you want on the back panel and screw it right back.
For one minute you have a normal looking mid-range phone, the next minute you have a phone with a kickstand, a lanyard, a battery pack and camera extensions; all while the base phone remains untouched. Instead of providing bare bones and asking the user to build their phone from scratch. CMF seems more practical.
They are more in the lines of “Dude, here’s a phone, here are a few accessories, just unscrew the back with a flat-head screwdriver and do whatever you want with it”.
This idea seems smarter than its ancestorial cousins. Instead of messing with the core functionality of the phone and reinventing the wheel altogether, this is less risky and definitely less complicated.
NOT PERFECT BUT HEADED RIGHT
This phone isn’t the holy grail because obviously while you can add accessories, the repairability is still an unsolved question. How repairable can a phone get whilst appealing to the general audience? is a question only time will answer. But if CMF holds on to the thought of accessorized modularity long enough, this might evolve into THE modular phone that we lost in transition. I am curious, nonetheless.